DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT. 543 
and is the only specimen [ have seen in spring plumage. In the fall of 
1861 quite a large flock made their appearance in this vicinity, of which 
about a dozen were captured, one which is now preserved in the museum 
of Starling Medical College. One morning, during the time of their visit, 
I laid behind a bank of the Scioto river near this city, waiting the 
rising of a heavy fog, to shoot some Teal who were heard feeding in the 
shallows. The favorable moment came and both barrels were discharged. 
Apparently from the smoke of nay gun, but really from the bank below 
its muzzle, sprang three of these birds, enlarged to colossal size by the 
deceptive agency of the fog. Iwas greatly astonished. 
Four or five years since a specimen was taken in Fairfield county, near 
the Licking Reservoir, which was preserved by Dr. Jasper, of this city. 
Mr. Langdon gives it as an occasional migrant on the Ohio, and in Sum- 
mer Birds says, “ one or two instances of the occurrence of this speeies in 
summer are noted by Mr. Porter” (Northern Ohio). 
Mr. H. KE. Chubb writes me, under date of February 7th, 1881, concern- 
ing a specimen recently captured, as follows : 
‘The specimen I had alive was shot and captured in Sandusky Bay. ido not know 
whether there were others with it or not. One shot struck it in the neck, and it was 
then chased down by men in a boat. I could hardly get it to eat at first, but before I | 
had it a week it would follow me ail over the room for a fish, and took its three pounds 
of fish a day with great relish.” 
The nest of the Pelican is said to be simply alow mound of dirt scraped 
together by the bird. A single egg is the complement. 
FAMILY GRACULIDA. THE CORMORANTS. 
Bill about as long as head, stout, straight, scarcely tapering, strongly hooked. Nos- 
trils abortive. Gular sac moderate, but evident; mostly naked. Wings short. Tail 
large, fan-shaped, scansorial, of twelve to fourteen broad stiff feathers exposed to the 
base. Legs inserted far behind centre of equilibrium, 
GENUS GRACULUS. Linnzeus. 
With the characters of the family. 
GRACULUS DILOPHUS (Sw.) Gray. 
Double-crested Cormorant. 
Graculus dilophus, WHEATON, Food of Birds, etc., Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1874, 575; Re- 
print, 1875, 15.—LANGDON, Cat. Birds of Cin., 1877, 18. 
Pelecanus (Carbo) dilophus, SWAINSON and RICHARDSON. Fn. Bor.-Am., ii, 1831, 473. 
Graculus dilephus, GRAY, Gen. of Birds, iii, 1849. 
Tail of twelve feathers; gular sac convex or nearly straight-edged behind. Glossy 
greenish-black ; feathers of the back and wings coppery-gray, black-shafted, black- 
edged; adult with curly black lateral crests, and in the breeding season other filamen- 
