56 THE BIRD WATCHER 
consequently not nea so handsome, in the larger 
fledged young ones. That here the intensity of the 
hue was gained gradually through sexual selection, 
I—being a believer in sexual selection—can have no 
doubt, and the lesser degree of it in the young bird 
would be due to a well-known principle of inheritance, 
which has been pointed out or, rather, discovered by 
Darwin. If, therefore, the inner colouring has been 
acquired in the same manner, it ought also to be first 
light and become brighter by degrees.’ I must now 
watch for these young cormorants to open their bills, 
for it is a habit which they share, more or less, with 
their parents, and out of it, as I believe, the adorn- 
ment has grown. 
I have no doubt that numbers of shags roost in 
these caverns during the night, for when I was lost 
on Raasey Isle in Skye, I came to a huge vaulted 
chamber in the cliffs, into which scores—perhaps 
hundreds—both of these birds and the common cor- 
morant flew, after the sun had set. When they were 
all settled, every ledge, crevice, and pinnacle seemed 
tenanted by them, and never shall I forget the gloom, 
the grandeur, and the loneliness of this scene. I ad- 
mired it, though naked, except for a torn pair of 
trousers which were half wet through. I should like 
to see them come flying into their caves here also, 
where I am not so forlorn ; but the distance of my 
hut from this part of the shore, the lateness of the 
hour up to which the light lasts, and my having to 
1 This is, in fact, the case. 
