6G0 BRITISH BIRDS. 



fish. They do not leave tl\e nest until they are fledged^ so that a vast 

 quantity of fish has to be conveyed by the parents for their support. 

 ;More fish are brought than can be eaten^ and this^ together with the 

 birds^ droppings, make a stench almost insupportable ere the young birds 

 quit their birthplace. 



The Shag does not wander far from its breeding-haunts in winter. It 

 retires to its favourite cave to sleep or to shelter from the wild storms that 

 sometimes confine it to its retreat for several days. When the sea is very 

 rough the Shag usually stays at home, for it cannot fish very successfully 

 under such circumstances. It does not often go far out to sea, always 

 preferring to seek its food close in-shore, in the quiet bays and creeks or 

 close to the rocks. Numbers of Shags may sometimes be seen sitting on 

 some sea rock,, preening their plumage or sleeping, and waiting for the 

 tide to render their fishing-places once more suitable. When swimming 

 they sometimes spread out their wings and hold them so for a considerable 

 time. When rising from the water they splash the surface with their 

 wings and feet, seeming to get into the air with difficulty. As evening 

 approaches, the Shags, in silent strings, speed along just above the surface 

 of the sea to their roosting-places. 



The Shag is considerably less than the Cormorant. It is not known 

 that there is any difference in the colour of the sexes. The ground-colour 

 of the plumage of the adult after the autumn moult is black glossed with 

 metallic green, very richly so on the head and neck, but only slightly on 

 the wings and tail ; the wing-coverts, scapulars, and feathers of the uj^per 

 back have narrow black margins. Bill black, paler on the hook, and 

 shading into yellow at the base ; bare spaces at the base of the bill and 

 round the eye black ; legs and feet black ; irides emerald-green. In very 

 early spring a frontal crest of recurved feathers is assumed, which dis- 

 appears after incubation has commenced. Young in first plumage and 

 immature birds very closely resemble similar stages of the Cormorant, but 

 may always be recognized by their shorter wings and by having only twelve 

 tail-feathers. Young in down are nearly uniform brownish black. 



The White Pelican {Pelecanus onocrotalus) and the Flamingo {Phoeni- 

 copterus roscus) have been shot in our islands ; but as they are so ex- 

 tensively kept in confinement it is more probable that the examples 

 obtained have been those of escaped birds than accidental wanderers from 

 the basin of the Mediterranean, where both these species are resident. 

 The egg of the former is figured on Plate 34, and that of the latter oj 

 Plate 61. 



