MEXICAN CORMORANT
121. Phalacrocorax vigua mexicanus. 25 in.
Adults with feathers bordering on the gular sac, white. In breeding plumage, the sides of head and neck have tufts of filmy white feathers, eyes green, as they are in all cormorants. All cormorants are expert swimmers and fishermen. They never plunge for their prey, but pursue and catch it under water, the same as do the grebes. When perching, they sit erect with their neck bent in the form of a letter S. They fly with their necks outstretched, and with rather slow wing beats. They are very gregarious and nest in large colonies, this species always being found in swamps or heavy shrubbery, surrounding bodies of water.
Nest.—Usually in trees overhanging the water, or upon the ground, in either case being made of sticks and weeds. The 3 to 5 eggs are bluish-green, covered with a chalky deposit (2.25 × 1.35).
Range.—Breeds north to the extreme southern boundary of the United States; wanders north casually to Ill. in summer.
PELICANS—Family Pelecanidæ
WHITE PELICAN
125. Pelecanus erythrorhynchus. 5 feet.
White with black primaries. Eye white; bill and feet yellow, the former in the breeding season being adorned with a thin upright knob about midway on the top of the upper mandible. The large pouch, with which pelicans are armed, is used as a dip net to secure their food, which consists of small fish. The White Pelican scoops up fish as he swims along the surface of the water; when he has his pouch partially filled, he tilts his head, contracts the pouch, thereby squeezing the water out of the sides of his mouth, and swallows his fish.
Nest.—Of sticks and weeds on the ground on islands or shores of inland lakes. They breed in colonies, and lay their eggs in June. The two or three eggs are pure white (3.45 × 2.30).
Range.—Breeds in the interior from Utah and Minn. northward. Winters on the Gulf coast and in Florida; rare on the Atlantic coast.
