354 THE BIRDS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



mottled with wood brown ; the irides are brown, as are the 

 legs. After the first autumn moult the head and neck are 

 bronze-brown, the back bronze-green, and the feathers on the 

 shoulders and scapulars have creamy tips, whilst the blackish 

 quills and tail feathers have creamy margins. The chin is 

 white, the throat creamy, and the under parts white, more or 

 less mottled with brown. In some examples the irides are 

 yellowish green, but in others the brown is apparently retained 

 until later. In the second autumn the green is deeper and 

 more metallic, and the under parts are browner, but, as in the 

 Cormorant, there is a variation in the retention of the white, 

 and in the depth of colour of the eyes. One bird I saw at 

 close quarters had eyes as green as an adult, but a considerable 

 amount of white on the belly. Probably in both Shag and 

 Cormorant the fully mature plumage is not attained until after 

 the third moult. Length, 28 ins. Wing, 10 ins. Tarsus, 2*25 

 ins. 



Family SULID.E. Gannets. 

 Gannet. Stda hassana (Linn.). 



Apart from the British Isles the Gannet (Plate iS9) has only a 

 few crowded breeding places in the Faroes, Iceland and off 

 the east coast of North America. In the British Isles it nests 

 on the " Stack and Skerries," Orkneys ; Bressay, Shetlands ; 

 Sulisgeir and St. Kilda in rhe Outer Hebrides ; Ailsa Craig 

 and the Bass Rock off the Scottish Coast ; Grassholm, Wales ; 

 and the Bull Rock and Skelligs off Ireland. In winter it is 

 pelagic, occurring oft" both east and west shores of the North 

 Atlantic, and entering the Mediterranean and Gulf of Mexico. 

 The total number of known breeding stations, now that Lundy 

 is deserted, is fifteen, and six of these are in our island group. 



Off our shores, at almost any season, some of these grand 



