THE FLORIDA CORMORANT. 431 



on trees. In the many breeding places of all these species which I have 

 visited, I never found individuals of one intermingled with those of another, 

 although the Large Cormorant did not seem averse from having the 

 Peregrine Falcon in its vicinity, while the Double-crested allowed a few 

 Gannets or Guillemots to nestle beside it, and the Florida Cormorant 

 associated with Herons, Frigate Pelicans, Grakles, or Pigeons. 



This species seldom flies far over land, but follows the sinuosities of the 

 shores or the waters of rivers, although its course towards a given point 

 should thus be three times as long. It is the only one that, in as far as I 

 have observed in America, alights on trees. My learned friend, the Prince 

 of Musignano, mentions in his valuable Synopsis of the Birds of the United 

 States, a species of Cormorant under the name of P. Graculus, which he 

 describes as being when adult greenish-black, with a few scattered white 

 streaks on the neck, in winter bronzed, and having a golden-green crest, the 

 head, neck, and thighs with short small white feathers, and adds that it 

 "inhabits both continents and both hemispheres: not uncommon in spring 

 and autumn in the Middle States: very common in the Floridas, where it 

 breeds, though very abundant in the arctic and antarctic circles." Unfor- 

 tunately no dimensions are given, except of the bill, which is said to be three 

 and a half inches long. The Florida Cormorant, however, does not at any 

 season present these characters, and therefore conceiving it to be different 

 from any hitherto described, I have taken the liberty of giving it a name, 

 while the figure and description will enable the scientific to form a distinct 

 idea of it, and thus to confirm the species, or restore to it its previous 

 appellation, should it have received one. 



On the 26th of April, 1832, I and my party visited several small Keys, 

 not many miles distant from the harbour in which our vessel lay. Mr. 

 Thruston had given us his beautiful barge, and accompanied us with his 

 famous pilot, fisherman and hunter, Mr. Egan. The Keys were separated 

 by narrow and tortuous channels, from the surface of the clear waters of 

 which were reflected the dark mangroves, on the branches of which large 

 colonies of Cormorants had already built their nests, and were sitting on 

 their eggs. There were many thousands of these birds, and each tree bore a 

 greater or less number of their nests, some five or six, others perhaps as many 

 as ten. The leaves, branches, and stems of the trees, were in a manner 

 white-washed with their dung. The temperature in the shade was about 90° 

 Fahr., and the effluvia which impregnated the air of the channels was 

 extremely disagreeable. Still the mangroves were in full bloom, and the 

 Cormorants in perfect vigour. Our boat being secured, the people scrambled 

 through the bushes, in search of the eggs. Many of the birds dropped into 

 the water, dived, and came up at a safe distance; others in large groups flew 



