Nov., 1903 I 
THIv CONDOR 
141 
yards long, of brawling rapids. livery morning dozens of cormorants flew up 
stream to the rapids from the mangrove-bordered lagoons near the coast. They 
flew low along tne water, sometimes singly and sometimes in small parties, usual- 
ly keeping side by side in a well formed line when two or more were together. 
For a time most of them perched about on the numerous projecting stones in the 
river, preening their plumage and sunning tliemselves; cithers swam idly in the 
NESTS OF MEXICAN CORMORANTS, LAKE CHAPALA 
slow current about the rapids. At such times the brilliantly green masses of foli- 
age bordering and often overhanging the water, the swift dark stream broken by 
jutting rocks on which were the numerous, black, sharply outlined forms of the 
cormorants, and overhead the crystalline depths of the morning sky of the rainy 
season made a wonderfully beautiful picture. 
