56 
PELICANIFORMES 
Though cormorants are thoroughly aquatic, their plumage seems to 
be less adapted for such habits than that of other wafer birds and it appears 
necessary for them to come ashore at intervals to dry their feathers. Then 
they love to sit in the warm sun on crags, rocks, or isolated perches such 
as buoys, which in the neighbourhood of their operations are always 
liberally whitened with their guano. There, with wings hanging flaecidly, 
and a general air of dejection, they drape themselves with all the grace of 
a wet rag. 
Economic Status. The danger of jumping at conclusions based upon 
superficial observation or common report is well illustrated by the result of 
a study of the food of these birds in the neighbourhood of the Gaspe salmon 
rivers . 1 Though commonly accused of damaging the salmon fisheries by 
devouring small fish and fry, careful examination of about thirty specimens 
showed that the birds were eating fish of no economic value and no salmon- 
oid remains were found in them. Probably the eels, sculpins, and other 
fish taken by the cormorant make the species beneficial rather than harm- 
ful to the salmon, and may more than compensate for the few valuable fish 
that it occasionally takes. The evidence of Dr. Lewis (See footnote) 
strongly suggests that salmon and trout are not only distasteful to cor- 
morants but may even be positively harmful to them. This provides a 
good example of the caution that is necessary in condemning any species 
of birds. 
119. Black Cormorant, common cormorant, le cormoran noir. Phalacrocornx 
carbo. L, 36. See family description previously given. 
Distinctions. With the family de- 
scription above, easily recognized as a 
cormorant. In America restricted to the 
east coast where it needs distinction only 
from the Double-crested. Somewhat 
larger than that species with heart-shaped 
gular pouch bordered with white or 
whitish and with fourteen instead of 
twelve tail feathers. When adult, with 
conspicuous, small, white flank patches 
(“watch-pockets’'). In highest nuptial 
plumage with no crest, but nape and neck 
frosted with many, fine, white filaments. 
The absence of crest, however, even when 
adult, is not a safe guide for specific 
recognition (See next species). Juveniles have considerably lighter or whiter breasts and 
abdomens than have similar plumages of the Double-crest. 
Field Marks. Unless size or the white on throat and flanks is obvious it is rarely 
possible to separate the two cormorants in life. 
Nesting. Similar to that of the next species. 
Distribution. The three continents of the northern hemisphere. In America, only 
the east coast where in Canada a few remnants of formerly populous and more numerous 
nesting colonies remain. Rarely seen inland from salt water. 
SUBSPECIES. The American form is the same as that found in the British Isles — 
the European Cormorant (le Grand Cormoran) Pbalacrocorax carbo carbo. 
Figure 94 
European Cormorant; scale, §. 
1 “The Double-crested Cormorant, Pbalacrocorax Auritus, and its Relation to Salmon Industries on the Gulf 
St. Lawrence": Geol. Surv., Canada, Mus. Bull. No. 13, Biological Series No. 5 (1915). Much additional evidence 
to the same general effect is also given by Harrison F. Lewis in his monograph “The Natural History of the Double- 
crested Cormorant,” privately printed under the auspices of the Province of Quebec Society for the Protection of 
Birds, 1929. 
