THE CORMORANTS AND SHAGS. 213 



Nestlings.— At first bare and of a leaden grey-colour, but 

 afterwards becoming covered with dense sooty-brown down, 

 and remaining in this till they are more than half the size of 

 their parents. 



Characters — The Cormorant may be told from the Shag by 

 its larger size and by haviiig fourteen tail-feat heis. I have seen 

 one specimen from Hungary which had fifteen rectrices. The 

 colour is always more of a blue-black, not greenish like the 

 Shag. 



The white filaments which adorn the head of the Cormo- 

 rant, and the occipital crest, are apparently retained for a short 

 time only. The female described was obtained in February, 

 and has all the ornamental plumes developed to the fullest 

 extent, including the white patch on the flanks, but these are 

 all shed by the time that nesting commences, so that the 

 real breeding plumage is exactly similar to that of the winter 

 dress after the autumn moult. 



Range in Great Britain — Although mostly a bird of the sea- 

 coasts, the Cormorant is often met with inland, and there is 

 scarcely a county in the British Islands where stragglers have 

 not been obtained at some time or other. It is found in most 

 parts of our area on the coasts, but is commoner in some dis- 

 tricts and rarer in others, where the Shag predominates. On 

 the east coast of England, between the Thames and the Hum- 

 ber, it is rarer, probably on account of the absence of breeding- 

 places suitable to the species, but north of Flamborough and 

 along the Scottish coast it occurs plentifully, while on our west- 

 ern coasts the Shag is the commonest of the two species. Mr. 

 Ussher gives a long list of the counties in Ireland in which 

 the Cormorant nests on the coast, and he says that several 

 breeding colonies are to be met with on the islands of inland 

 lakes, where they breed on trees, such as Lough Tawnyard in 

 Co. Mayo, Lough Key in Roscommon, and Lough Cutra in 

 Gal way. In some of these, he says that the Cormorants 

 breed in company with Herons in high trees. 



Range outside the British Islands. — The Cormorant is distributed 

 in suitable localities throughout Europe and Northern Asia to 

 Japan. It breeds in India and Burma, and is believed to 

 extend to Australia and also to South Africa, but recently the 



