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Mackay, Habits of the Double-crested Cormorant. 
HABITS OF THE DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT 
(. PHALACROCORAX DILOPHUS ) IN 
RHODE ISLAND. 
BY GEORGE H. MACKAY. 
I first visited West Island, Seconnet Point, Rhode Island, 
in April, 1869, and with three exceptions have passed a few 
days there every spring since. It was while there during April, 
1870, that my attention was first attracted to the Cormorants 
which I often saw flying about (a few every day) and alighting 
on the water close to the breakers near the island. This fre- 
quency did not, however, continue, for after 1872 they ceased 
visiting the immediate neighborhood of the island and I have 
not seen one alight there since. I have, however, seen more or 
less of them in April every year flying past the island as they 
passed from one place to another. I soon learned something 
regarding their movements and roosting place, which was on 
the Cormorant Rocks, located three and a half miles west of 
Seconnet Point and three quarters of a mile southwest from 
Sachuest Point on the Newport shore. 
Although often intending to visit these rocks for the purpose 
of securing some of the Cormorants, I have never done so until 
this year. I have nevertheless watched them on the island with 
the aid of the large glass and seen them many times come, just 
before sunset, to roost on the rocks above mentioned. During 
my shooting experience on the coast I have taken only a very few 
Cormorants, or Shags as they are commonly called, for the 
reason that I never went after them, and also because they 
usually avoid passing within gun shot of a boat. I remember 
shooting one, a lone bird, off a headland at Swampscott, Mass., 
many years ago (species not noted), and one on January 29, 
1866, and two on February 8, 18 66, in South Carolina (known 
there by the colored people as ‘Nigger Geese’). On October 5, 
1877, I shot a lone Plialacrocorax carbo on Nantucket Island, 
Mass., and still another of the same kind on April 21, 18S9, off 
West Island, which comprise all I have ever taken. 
