4 
MUSEUM BULLETIN NO. 13. 
indicate nests merging smoothly in colour and outline into the 
surrounding surface. In the mornings the cormorants are 
seen flying away from the rock in singles and in small flocks of a 
dozen or more. In the late afternoon the greatest number re- 
turn, but throughout the day birds can be seen both going and 
coming. About sunset most of the resident birds are in place on 
the rock. The gulls cover the less elevated positions and the 
few isolated crags, while the masses of dark bodied cormorants 
make nearly solid black splashes on the summits of the gently 
rolling elevations. At such times it was estimated that there 
were 1,000 cormorants on the rock, but as stragglers continue to 
come in until dark it is probable that the total population of 
cormorants on Perce rock is in the neighbourhood of 1,200 or 
1,300 individuals. Local observers and residents place the 
number much higher, but I do not think their estimates can be 
substantiated. 
Differing in habit from many sea birds, the juvenile and 
non-breeding cormorants seem to live during the nesting season 
in the same communities with the adult birds. Most water 
birds separate through the breeding season, the young and the 
adult birds occupying different localities through the summer, and 
not mixing together until after nesting duties are accomplished. 
On the Gaspe coast, however, old and young cormorants 
are seen constantly together, the latter evidently roosting at 
night in the immediate vicinity of their elders and accompanying 
them in mixed flocks to and from the feeding grounds. 
About Gaspe the nesting and other conditions are quite 
different from those at Perc6. Instead of occupying the top of 
one inaccessible crag they nest in different places on the shores 
of the bay, none very difficult of access. 
On the north shore of the bay, about 3 miles out from Gaspe 
Basin, near a spot laid down on the pilot charts as “Three-runs,” 
is a colony of about thirty nests built in trees growing from 
the top and upper face of the cliff and overlooking the sea at a 
height of about 150 feet. These trees are mostly small birches, 
with a butt diameter of from 4 to 6 inches, growing from the 
crest and upper face of the bluff and overhanging the narrow shore 
and the sea below. This site has probably not been long occupied 
