208 British Birds, 



fetid odour always prevails about their breeding-place. 

 The eggs vary in number from four to six, and are 

 almost entirely covered over with a white chalky in* 

 crustation, which, however, admits of easy removal by 

 a knife or similar means, leaving a shell of a bluish- 

 green colour apparent. 



SHAG — {Phalacrocorax cristatus). 



Green Cormorant, Crested Cormorant, Crested Shag. 

 — A smaller bird than the last, but easily distinguish- 

 able by that and its prevailing green colour. As to 

 habits and haunts, the differences are not great. The 

 Shags are said to breed lower down on the rocks than 

 the Cormorant, and the nests are principally composed 

 of sea-weed and grasses. The eggs are three to five 

 in number, and covered with the same incrustation as 

 those of the Cormorant, and equally removable. 

 White at first, they soon become as soiled and stained 

 as those of the Grebes. 



GANNET— (5^/^ Bassand). 



Solan Goose. — Common enough in certain localities, 

 though the^ localities in which they occur vary with 

 the season. When the breeding time comes round, 

 they congregate in hosts of many thousands at some 

 half-dozen different stations, particularly affected by 

 them, on different parts of our coasts. During the 

 breeding season if, or where, unmolested, they become 

 exceedingly tame, and will even suffer themselves to 

 be touched. They make their nests of a large mass 

 of sea-weed and dry grass, on rather than in which 

 they lay each one single ^g^^ of no very considerable 



