352 THE BIRDS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



Sha^- Phalacrocoi'cix gracnhis (Linn.). 



The range of the Shag (Plate 157) is restricted to Iceland and 

 the western shores of Europe ; a closely allied form occurs in 

 the Mediterranean and Black Seas. In the British Isles it 

 breeds freely in the north and west of Scotland, the Orkneys and 

 Shetlands and the west coast of Ireland, and is fairly common 

 along the shores of Wales, of Man, and the south-west of 

 England; On the east coast it is not so plentiful as the 

 Cormorant. 



In its nuptial dress, the distinctive feature of which is a short 

 but conspicuous recurved crest, it can always be distinguished 

 from the Cormorant, but this head-dress is only worn during the 

 first six or seven months of the year. At other times the adult 

 bird may be told by its smaller size, green plumage and absence 

 of white on the face. The twelve tail feathers are the 

 safest character in young birds. The habits of the Shag or 

 Green Cormorant differ little from those of the larger bird, but 

 it less frequently visits inland waters. The dogmatic assertion 

 that it never crosses the land is erroneous ; the bird does at 

 times occur inland when there is no evidence of it having 

 been "storm-blown." Indeed it occasionally appears in some 

 numbers in autumn, and it is possible that during a southward 

 movement, an irregular migration, it attempts to travel over- 

 land. In one instance an incursion was in January, when the 

 ground was snow-clad and the ponds and rivers frozen. 

 Several birds were shot in Lancashire and Cheshire, and I 

 picked up two full thirty miles from the coast which had been 

 apparently starved or frozen ; six were seen perched together 

 on a snow-covered araucaria. 



Although occasionally standing erect, its usual pose is less 

 upright and more graceful than that of the Cormorant ; the 

 body is inclined at an angle, the neck curved like that of a 



