300 Mr. J. C. McLean on the Spotted Shag. 



nappers and saw these beautiful birds ; and, if I remember 

 rightly, there were only two nests, one of which contained 

 eggs, for, although I could not get to the nests, I could see 

 an egg showing over the edge of one of them 



I revisited the spot on December 23, 1885, and found six 

 nests — five on the ledge where they were in 1881 and one on 

 the opposite side of the rock. One of the five contained two 

 eggs, three had each two young ones, and the fifth was 

 empty. The nest on the opposite side contained two eggs, 

 but was out of my reach. 



On December 27, 1886, I was surprised to find neither 

 eggs nor young, although the old birds were at the nests. 

 There were seven nests, one of which had not been used or, 

 rather, repaired, as the others had. 



On December 17, 1887, there were five nests on the ledge, 

 only one of which contained anything — an addled e^^ — and 

 two on the opposite side, one containing three eggs, and the 

 other two young and an egg. On another rock were two 

 empty nests, and on another two containing young birds. 

 On the rock on which was the egg there were a number of 

 fully-fledged young, that crowded to one end of the rock on 

 my approach, and then dropped into the sea. Altogether, 

 old and young, there were about twenty birds of this species 

 about the reef. 



My first trip there last season was on December 21, 1888. 

 Mr. A. Hamilton had visited the Shags on November 9, and 

 had found the nests to contain young birds covered with 

 down, and therefore not long hatched. The tide was coming 

 in and I had very little time ; so, after getting thoroughly 

 wet while going out to the rock, I climbed up, expecting to 

 find young birds in the nests. Imagine my surprise when I 

 found each nest to contain eggs. There were eight nests on 

 the ledge, but the two that last season were on the opposite 

 side were gone — ledge and all. I took three clutches, made 

 a few notes, and made for dry land, which 1 reached in a 

 soaked condition. On another rock, to which I could not 

 get, were three nests on a small ledge. 



The nests, eight in number, were placed about two feet 



