CORMORANTS: MEXICAN CORMORANT 
85 
Range. —Resident from northwestern Mexico, southeastern Texas, southern 
Louisiana, Cuba, and Bahamas south to Nicaragua. Has wandered north to New 
Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, and southern Illinois. 
State Records. —As its name implies the -Mexican Cormorant is a southern 
species, not coming regularly so far north as New Mexico. A few wander occa¬ 
sionally into the southern part of the State and one was seen, July 25, 1901, near 
Carlsbad (Bailey). (At Silver City they are of rare occurrence but one was taken 
on Lyon Dike (Duck Creek), November 12, 1916 (Kellogg).] Several were seen 
and one taken in April, 1854, at Fort Thorn (Henry). This specimen was origi¬ 
nally recorded by Henry as floridanus (Proc.Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1855, 317), 
but when he sent it to Washington, it was identified as mexicanus. —W. W. Cooke. 
Nest. —Rudely made of sticks and leaves, placed on bushes or trees near or over 
water. Eggs: 4 or 5, bluish white, with a slight chalky deposit. 
General Habits. —Suggesting the Water Turkey with its long 
snaky neck and black body, this occasional visitor is a striking figure, 
whether perched on the rocks of the shore line or the piles of a pier, 
and should be carefully looked for in the southern part of the State. 
At a seaside resort in southern California I once found a group of 
Cormorants among the picturesque figures of the pier and one of their 
number a privileged character of the bathing beach. After pluming his 
feathers “he would appear to be starting dow T n the slope of the beach 
and then suddenly open his wings and hold them out as if afraid of 
falling on his bill, acting so peculiarly that I imagined that he had been 
wounded. However, when he decided to go, raising both his big paddle 
feet at once, he proceeded with high awkward hops down the shore. 
When he finally got to the surf he let it wash him out and in once or 
twice, looking so helpless that I was sure he must have been wounded. 
He also rode through the breaking surf, his body down under the foam, 
his head held high, clear of it. When thoroughly soused he let the 
waves wash him in again, and came walking laboriously back up the 
beach, slim and dripping, his bedraggled tail trailing over the sand. 
Apparently he had been taking a bath! After oiling his feathers he 
swam out and dived, staying under so long and swimming out so far that 
he showed his full aquatic power. When he was in the rollers and saw 
a foaming breaker coming he would bend over, disappearing as the 
water splashed. When the waves had flattened he would reappear in 
the smooth water between seas.” Another day, apparently the same 
bird was seen being driven down to water by a cottager, assuming the 
role of “goose girl” walking slowly behind him with extended arms 
(1916b, pp. 105-106). 
The gentleness and tractibility of the cormorants have been turned 
to practical uses in China where they are so far domesticated that they 
fish for their masters—a close collar preventing their swallowing their 
catch. 
Additional Literature.—Nelson, E. W., Condor, V, 139-145, 1903. 
