. Records of walks and talks with nature . alacrocorax jioridanns. This is another member of the Order ofTotipalmate Swimmers and is quite a re-markable bird, It inhabits the South At-lantic and Gulf States, ranging along theMississippi Valley northward to Illinois. Al-though in my Birds of Eastern North Amer-ica I considered this and the Double-crestedCormorant (fig. 4) as one species, I now con-sider them entirely separate. Cormorantsare robust birds with rather long necks; thewings are rather short with tips folding nearthe base of the long, stiffened tail. The billis shorter than the head
. Records of walks and talks with nature . alacrocorax jioridanns. This is another member of the Order ofTotipalmate Swimmers and is quite a re-markable bird, It inhabits the South At-lantic and Gulf States, ranging along theMississippi Valley northward to Illinois. Al-though in my Birds of Eastern North Amer-ica I considered this and the Double-crestedCormorant (fig. 4) as one species, I now con-sider them entirely separate. Cormorantsare robust birds with rather long necks; thewings are rather short with tips folding nearthe base of the long, stiffened tail. The billis shorter than the head and strongly hookedat the tip. The gular sac is small, and withother naked skin about the head, is brightorange in color. Adults appear entirelyblack at a little distance away, but each feath- 56 RECORDS VOLUME XI, MARCH. 1919. er of the back has an ashy center and all ofthe phimage has a greenish iridescence. The function of the stiffened tail—asidefrom that of a steering apparatus—is proba-bly to check the flight by being dragged in. Vlo;. 4. Double-crested Cormorant. 1-10. KE(X>RI)fc5, VOLUME XI, MAKCH, 1919. 57 the water when the birds are alighting andthe feathers are worn on account of this us-age. The Florida Cormorant perches on treesusually selecting those which are dead, butshows a decided preference for stubs stand-ing in the water, buoys or beacons, and it isdifficult to find one of them in Florida wa-ters that is not ornamented by one of thesebirds. Cormorants are rather shy and whenstarted from a perch will invariably dropdownward nearly to the water on a sharp in-cline before flying away. Their course is ina direct line with a moderately quick mo-tion of the wings. (continued.) Tuesday, April 1. Needham UpperFalls. NEWTON HIGHLANDS BIRD , cold, 24° at sunrise, with a moderate, coolnorthwest wind. Walk from Upper to Lower Falls. Dis-tance. 3 miles; time, 3 hours. Birds seeu:- 58 RECORDS VOLUME XI, MARCFI, 1919. 1. Crow, 32. 2. Song Sparrow, 3
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