THE. C.IB.R Volume V November-December, 1901? Number Notes on the Mexican Cormorant BV E. W. NELSON MONG the rugged cliffs and headlands of the Aleutian Islands I first saw .cormorants in sufficient numbers to become familiar with their habits. The ?mpression made at this time by the birds and their surroundings was so lasting that ever since their presence in a locality creates a sense of strange wild- ness that adds a peculiar charm to their haunts. Some of the species, however, live in situations quite different from the rude storm beaten crags overlooking northern seas where so many of them congregate. The Mexican cormorant (Phalacrocorax mexicanus) is one of these dwellers amid milder surroundings. It is a wide ranging species wandering up the Missis- sippi Valley to southern Illinois and is found thence south to Central America, and even known to Cuba and Watling's Island in the Bahamas. In the intermediate area on the mainland they occur mainly along the coast lagoons from Texas south on the gulf coast, and from southern Sonora on the Pacific side of Mexico. From the lagoons they range up the larger rivers well into the interior. During our work in Mexico Mr. Goldman and I have become most familiar with them in the tropical and subtropical parts of the south.western section of that country. Al- though they are found in the coast lagoons north to southern Sonora they are most abundant in these situations from Sinaloa southward. We saw them on the Balsas River and its tributaries in the heart of Michoacan and Guerrero, and they follow the Rio Santiago up through Jalisco to Lake Chapala, at 50o0 feet altitude, on the southwestern border of the Mexican tableland. From the distribution given, it is apparent that this is mainly a fresh or brackish water species in its mainland disbribution, and Gundlach states that the few he saw in Cuba were found about fresh water.
