and even of the Ohio, while others proceed as far eastward as Cape Hatteras,
all returning to the Floridas on the approach of cold weather.
The Florida Cormorant seldom goes far out to sea, but prefers the
neighbourhood of the shores, being found in the bays, inlets, and large
rivers. I never met with one at a greater distance from land than five
miles. It is at all seasons gregarious, although it is not always found in
large flocks. The birds of this species never suffer others of the same
genus to resort to their breeding places, although they sometimes associate
with individuals belonging to different genera. The P. Carbo
appropriates to itself the upper shelves of the most rugged and elevated
rocks, whose bases are washed by the sea; P, dilophus breeds on flat
rocky islands at some distance from the shores of the mainland ; and the
Florida Cormorant nestles 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 Guillemots 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 of the three species
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.'1 Unfortunately 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, 1 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 were 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 away affrighted
; while a great number stood on their nests and the branches, as
if gazing upon beings strange to them. But alas ! they soon became too
well acquainted with us, for the discharges from our guns committed
frightful havock among them. The dead were seen floating on the water,
the crippled making towards the open sea, which here extended to the
very Keys on which we were, while groups of a hundred or more swam
about a little beyond reach of our shot, awaiting the event, and the air
was filled with those whose anxiety to return to their eggs kept them
hovering over us in silence. In a short time the bottom of our boat was
covered with the slain, several hats and caps were filled with eggs; and
we may now intermit the work of destruction. You must try to excuse
these murders, which in truth might not have been nearly so numerous,
had I not thought of you quite as often while on the Florida Keys, with
a burning sun over my head, and my body oozing at every pore, as I do
now while peaceably scratching my paper with an iron-pen, in one of
the comfortable and quite cool houses of the most beautiful of all the
cities of old Scotland.
The Florida Cormorant begins to pair about the first of April, and
commences the construction of its nest about a fortnight after. Many do