SHAG, OR GBEEN COBMOBANT 221 



where they exist, are preferred. The eggs are three in nnmber, in 

 shape and colour like those of the cormorant, and the nests, which 

 are placed close together, are also like those of that bird. 



The shag is foimd in certain locaHties all round the coasts of 

 Great Britain and Ireland, but is less numerous and more local than 

 the cormorant. 



Gannet. 



Sula bassana. 



Adult : head and neck buff-colour ; all the rest of the plumage 

 white, except the primaries, which are black. Young of the first 

 year : upper parts blackish brown flecked with white ; under parts 

 mottled with dusky ash and buff. The dark markings diminish 

 imtil the sixth year, when the adult colouring is assumed. Length, 

 thirty-four inches. 



One of the most notable seafowls inhabiting the British coasts 

 is the gannet, or solan goose, a species which forms a connecting- 

 link between the cormorants and the pehcans. The origin of its two 

 cormnon names is not precisely known, although it seems probable 

 that gannet is derived from gans, the ancient British name for goose. 

 The young birds from the Bass Kock, which are largely used as food 

 in the neighbouring counties, are called, I do not know why, * Par- 

 liamentary geese.' The world will have it that the bird is a goose, 

 although as little like a goose, except in size, as a guillemot is like a 

 sheldrake. The scientific name, bassana (of the Bass Eock), had its 

 origin in the belief that the rock at the entrance to the Firth of 

 Forth was the gannet's only breeding-place. There are several 

 other colonies : one, now greatly diminished, on Lundy Island ; 

 another, also small, on the coast of Pembrokeshire ; on the West 

 Coast of Scotland there are four stations, and others exist on the' 

 Irish coast. None of these, however, can compare in importance 

 with the Bass Rock, where it has been calculated that as many as 

 ten thousand pairs congregate each year to breed. 



The gannet is an exclusively marine bird, and an inhabitant 

 throughout the year of the seas round the British Islands. Its flight 

 is easy and powerful, and its appearance on the wing more peUcan- 

 than cormorant -like. It feeds entirely on fish, and follows the 

 shoals of such species as swim near the surface — mackerel, herrings, 

 pilchards, and sprats. When fishing it sails at a considerable 



