484 WEB-FOOTED BIRDS. 



THE SHAG. 



( Phalacrocorax graculus, Ddmont. Bonap. Synops. No. 354. Peleca- 



nus graculus, Linn. Lath. Ind. ii. sp. 15. Carlo gracuhis,TBMM. 

 Man. d'Orn. ii. p. 897. Fou brun dc Cayenne, Buff. PI. Enlum. 

 974. [young of the year]. Shag. Penn. Arct. Zool. ii. No. 508. 

 Lewin's Brit. Birds, vii. t. 264. Pehcanus parvus, Gmel. Lath. 

 [young]. Phil. Museum. No ) 



Sp. Charact. — Bill about 3^ inches long; tail very long, conic, 

 composed of 12 feathers. — ^dult greenish-black ; with a few scat- 

 tered white streaks on the neck. In suynmer bronze-colored, with 

 a golden-green crest; head, neck and thighs, with short and small 

 white feathers. Young blackish, more or less tinted beneath with 

 whitish. 



The Shag, a denizen of nearly the whole world, inhab- 

 its both the old and new continent, and is colonized in both 

 hemispheres. They are frequent in most parts of Europe, 

 as far north as Sweden, Norway and Iceland ; and in the 

 •eastern parts are birds of passage. In Africa, Brazil, and 

 under the Antarctic circle they are particularly numerous. 

 They are common in most parts of the United States, as 

 far south as East Florida where they even breed, in large 

 communities in trees ; * but are not, however, found appar- 

 ently much further north than the bays and islands of the 

 St. Lawrence. In the southern hemisphere Cook and Fors- 

 ter found them in the desolate island of Georgia, in a region 

 nearly inaccessible to man, where, associated with the Pen- 

 guins, they lodged among the tufts of rushy grass, the only 

 vegetable production of that dreary tract. On Staten I^and 

 they were also observed in great numbers ; and were almost 

 the exclusive possessors of the islands in the Straits of Mag- 

 ellan, one of which Captain Cook named after them. 



* Audubon, in lit. 



