Page:Condor5(6).djvu/6

 Nov., T9o3[ THE CONDOR T4 yards long, of brawling rapids. Every morning dozens of cormorants flew up strean to the rapids from the mangrove-bordered lagoons near the coast. They flew low along the water, sometimes singly and sometimes in small parties, usual- ly keeping side by side in a well formed line when two or more were together. For a time most of them perched about on the numerous projecting stones in the river, preening their plumage and sunning themselves; others swam idly in the HrIBTS OI r MrXICAH CORMORANTS, LAK r CHAPALA slow current about the rapids. At such times the brilliantly green masses of foli- age bordering and often overhanging the water, the swift dark stream broken by jutting rocks on which were the numerous, black, sharply outlined forms of the cormorants, and overhead the crystalline depths of the morning sky of the rainy season made a wonderfully beautiful picture.