142 
THE FLORIDA CORMORANT. 
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 Gillemots 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 
