The Baird 

 Cormorant 



Taken in Washington 



KNOB AND SPIKE 



Photo by the Author 



middle of June, or even the middle of May in extreme southern localities, 

 but the first of July is nearer the height of the season. Nests are bracket- 

 shaped, or quadrispherical, oftener than complete crater-shaped; for 

 allowance must be made for the crowding of the wall, against which 

 this cormorant always builds. The structure is the work of successive 

 seasons, and the limy excrement, which invarably cements the grasses 

 of which it is composed, appears rather to favor its preservation than 

 to hasten its decay. An extreme instance of this seasonal increment may 

 be seen at the mouth of the Painted Cave on Santa Cruz Island. Nesting 

 towers, five or six feet in height, appear in certain favored situations, under 

 the protecting vault of the giant archway. Certain of these alabaster 

 monuments, indeed, are feeling the crowding effect of the arching walls, 

 and the time is not far distant when these leaning towers of Pisa must 

 be overbalanced. 



The eggs are of a delicate bluish green when first laid, half or two- 

 thirds overspread with a thick chalky deposit. They are of an elongated 

 elliptical shape, varying greatly in size, but averaging smaller than either 

 of the other local species; while runts, or undersized eggs, are not in- 

 frequent. 



As in the case of all cormorants, nesting is liable to be broken up 

 by the depredations of gulls or ravens, so that if a second attempt is 

 made, the rearing of chicks is thrown very late in the season. At Gren- 

 ville Point, on the Washington coast, I found nests with incomplete sets, 

 as well as young just hatched, on the 27th of August, 1910. On the 17th 

 of the month following I revisited the scene, and concluded that some, at 

 least, of the youngsters under review would not be able to quit the nest 

 before November. 



i960 



