342 



BRITISH BIRDS' NESTS. 



own experience far oftener the latter month than 

 the former. 



Remarks. A winter visitor principally. Is said 

 not to breed until it is two years old. Notes : call, 

 a grating kr-kr-kr. One authority represents the 

 call-note of the male as tii-tii-tii-tu y and the response 

 of the female as re-re-re-re-re. Local and other 

 names : Black Duck, Black Scoter, Black Diver. 

 Sits closely, and covers its eggs when leaving them 

 voluntarily. 



SHAG. 



(Phalacrocorax graculus!) 

 Order STEGANOPODES ; Family PELECANID^: (PELICANS). 



Description of Parent 

 Birds. Length about 

 twenty-seven inches ; bill 

 rather long, hooked at the 

 tip, and black. The gape 

 extends behind the line of 

 the eye, and the naked skin 

 about it is black, spotted 

 with chrome yellow. Irides 

 green. The forehead bears 

 a curved-forward kind of 

 crest, which makes its ap- 

 pearance early in the spring. 

 Head and neck, all round, rich dark green, glossed 

 with purple and bronze sheen ; back and wing- 

 coverts dark green, with a more intense margin of 

 the same colour round the border of each feather ; 

 wings and tail black ; breast, belly, and under-parts 

 generally the same as the head and neck ; legs, 

 toes, and claws black. 



The female resembles the male. 



SHAG. 



