The Brandt Cormorant 



Taken in Washington 



Photo by the Author 



NEST AND EGGS OF BRANDT CORMORANT 



BRANDT'S Cormorant is both more sociable — or, strictly speaking, 

 gregarious — and more wary than its milder-mannered cousins, the Faral- 

 lon and the White-crest (P. a. cincinatus). Such wariness is a little 

 hard to account for, because the Indians of our southern coasts, where 

 the bird enjoys its widest distribution, were never such bold navigators 

 as those of the Northland, who have for generations robbed the rookeries 

 of the White-crested, Pelagic, and Red-faced Cormorants. Nevertheless, 

 Brandt's is a familiar figure on the piles of the unfrequented piers, as well 

 as on the rocky headlands of our entire coastline. If the bird is not 

 exactly of a mind to fly at the first alarm from a passing steamer, it stands 

 with wings half open, that, should necessity arise, no time may be lost in 

 making good its escape. Again, a group of them will sit on a low-lying 

 reef, or even on a floating log, with wings half extended, "drying their 

 clothes" in the sunshine. The wings as well as the feet are used under 

 water, but we cannot guess why the Cormorants more than other aquatic 

 species should be averse to wet plumage. 



These birds nest in large, close-set colonies, which, partly no doubt 

 for sanitary reasons, they relocate from year to year. At least a last 



1950 



