SHAG. | 157 
fabulous, sixty guineas* having been given for a couple of them. 
I have to thank Mr. Champley, C.E., of Scarborough, for most 
kindly sending me an engraving of a Great Auk’s egg in his 
possession, as well as for offering me access to his admirable col- 
lection of eggs, numbering upwards of 8000 specimens. 
IV.—PELECANID 2. 
287. COMMON CORMORANT—(Phalacrocoraz carbo). 
Crested Cormorant, Corvorant, Great Black Cormorant, Cole 
Goose, Skart.—Wherever there are any traces of a rocky coast 
about our island, there the Cormorant is pretty sure to be found, 
so that he may very well be described as a common bird. Where 
the rocky coast is not only extensive, but not liable to much 
disturbance from human intrusion, these birds abound, and may 
be seen in numbers and observed to anyone’s heart’s content- 
They build their nests, which are of ample size, with sticks, sea- 
weed and coarse herbage of any obtainable sort, on ledges of the 
precipices ; and many nests are usually formed in the near neigh- 
bourhood of each other. They are much disposed also to select 
as the situation for their nests a rocky islet with cliffy sides, and 
woe to the nose of anyone who approaches such an island-rock 
from the leeward side. What from the nature of their food and 
the abundance of their excrement, an intolerably fetid odour 
always prevails about their breeding-place. The eggs vary in 
number from fourto six, and are almost entirely covered over with 
a white chalky incrustation, which, however, admits of easy 
removal by a knife or similar means, leaving a shell of a bluish- 
green colour apparent. 
288. SHAG—(Phalacrocorax cristatus). 
Green Cormorant, Crested Cormorant, Crested Shag.—A 
* Morris’s Nests and Eggs of British Birds, 
