136 
THE DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT. 
curious to see them crawl flat on the rock, assisting themselves with their 
bill, feet and wings, employing the first in the manner of Parrots, and the 
wings like the oars of a boat or the flappers of turtles. When approached, 
they curved and twisted their necks in the most curious manner, reminding 
one of the writhings of a snake, and when seized they muted so profusely as 
to excite disgust. A dozen or more of different sizes, however, were thrust 
into a bag, and carried on board the vessel. The materials and dimensions 
of the nests were noted on the spot, and a hatful of eggs was brought to me. 
The Double-crested Cormorant forms its nest of sea-weeds, some sticks, 
moss, and clods of earth, with grass adhering to them, which it piles up into 
a solid mass, often as high as three feet from the rock, with a diameter of 
fifteen or eighteen inches at the top, and of two and a half feet at the base. 
The whole has an appearance of solidity seldom seen in the nests of water- 
birds. The nests are placed as near each other as the nature of the ground 
will permit, and a great number which appeared to have stood out against 
the winter storms, had been enlarged and repaired that season. Many, 
however, lay scattered over the rocks, having been demolished by heavy 
gales or the breaking of the surf during tempests. The whole surface of the 
rock resembled a mass of putridity : feathers, broken and rotten eggs, and 
dead young, lay scattered over it ; and I leave you to guess how such a place 
must smell in a calm warm day. The eggs are three or four, average two 
and a half inches in length by one inch and four and a half eighths in 
breadth, and have an elongated form. They are covered with a calcareous 
coating, which is more or less soiled with filth, but when carefully scraped, 
shows a fine light greenish-blue tint. 
The young, when just hatched, are of a bluish-black colour, tinged with 
purple, and look extremely odd. They remain blind for several days, and 
for about a fortnight are fed by the parents with the greatest care, the food 
being regurgitated into their open throats. They appear to grow rapidly, 
for in the course of eight or ten days we found some the size of a pullet, 
which, when marked, were scarcely half that size. They ar.e covered with 
long down of a brownish-black colour, and do not leave the nest, unless they 
are intruded on, until they are able to fly, when their parents, who long 
before had ceased to feed them by dropping the fish into their bill, and had 
merely placed it on the ground near them, leave them to shift for them- 
selves. By the middle of August all these birds remove southward, along 
Newfoundland, by Cape Breton Island, and the shores of Nova Scotia, 
scarcely any remaining on the coast of the first during winter, when indeed 
not many are seen farther east than the Bay of Halifax. 
The fishermen and eggers never gather their eggs, they being unfit for 
being eaten by any other animals than Gulls or Jagers ; but they commit 
