100 OUR RARER BRITISH BREEDING BIRDS. 



a great fancy for decorating their nests with the 

 green stems, leaves, and flowers of the pink campion. 

 They had gathered it from some ledges on which 

 it grew not far away, and although quite fresh, it 

 was lying beneath eggs in all stages of incubation. 

 According to my experience, even where a situation 

 admits of a bulky structure, the nest is never 

 quite so large as that of the Common Cormorant. 



The eggs of the Shag number from two to five, 

 and are slightly smaller than those of its congener 

 just mentioned. They are elongated in shape, 

 and encrusted with a coat of chalk, which, when 

 scraped away, reveals the pale green shell beneath. 

 I cannot say that I have noticed the considerable 

 variation in their shape commented upon by some 

 naturalists in describing the eggs. 



The bird is a close sitter, and as a result 

 I carry one or two memento scars, from forcible 

 removals from crevices, upon my hands. 



Young Shags when hatched have not a particle 

 of down upon their little black shiny bodies, a 

 circumstance which renders them strangely sug- 

 gestive of the nigger tribe. 



The illustration of an adult bird and her nest, 

 with its guano-splashed surroundings, was secured 

 at the Noup of Noss by careful stalking. 



SHEARWATER, MANX. 



ALTHOUGH banished from some of its old breeding- 

 haunts by rats and Puffins, and harried in others 

 by collectors and natives, who rob it of its single 

 egg in the former case, and of its young one in 

 the latter directly the chick has arrived at a 



