354 CORMORANTS 



4. Nest and Eggs. Although formerly the cormorant is known to have 

 nested on trees in Norfolk, at the present time the only breeding-places in Great 

 Britain are on ledges of cliffs or on rocky islets. It is naturally a gregarious 

 breeder. In Ireland there are several colonies in which the nests are built in 

 trees. On the Continent it is found in Holland nesting among the reeds on the 

 meers of Friesland, and in the Dobrogea there is a colony of some seventeen 

 hundred nests high up in partly submerged willows. The materials used, and the 

 manner of building, vary according to situation. In trees the nests are mainly built 

 of sticks or heather stems, lined with grasses, green rushes, straw, etc., while on islets 

 at sea the chief material used is seaweed. Both sexes share in nest construction, 

 according to Naumann. (PI. LXXH.) The eggs, in number usually four, occasionally 

 five or only three, and rarely six, are generally elongated in shape; they have 

 a blue undershell, but the greater part of it is covered by a thick chalky deposit, 

 which has a tendency to leave patches of the blue undershell exposed. When 

 much incubated the soft chalky surface is frequently much stained by the nest 

 material. (PL V.) Average size of 84 eggs, 2-52x1-55 in. [64x39-4 mm.]. 

 Incubation is shared by both sexes, and lasts four weeks almost exactly, as 

 observed in a wild state by Hantzsch, Lee (26 to 28 days), and Schmidt, and also in 

 confinement. The breeding season in the British Isles begins in the latter part 

 of April, and fresh eggs may be obtained in May ; but in the Shetlands, Saxby says, 

 it does not begin to breed till the middle of May. There seems little doubt that 

 occasionally, at any rate, second broods are reared, and that the fresh eggs which 

 may be found in June are due to this. In Southern Europe the breeding season is 

 sometimes earlier, and near the coast eggs may be taken in March, while in the 

 Dobrogea I met with fresh clutches at the beginning of April. [F. c. B. j.] 



5. Food. Fish, up to the biggest kind which they can swallow. The food 

 of the young consist also of fish, as far as at present known (see also Shag). 

 They are caught by diving only. The young are fed by both parents, in the 

 manner described, p. 361. [E. H.] 



SHAG [Phalacrocorax grdculus (Linnaeus). Green-cormorant, crested-cormorant ; 

 shoalster (Devon) ; scarf or scart (Scotland). French, cormoran huppe ; 

 German, Krdhen-Scharbe ; Italian, marangone col ciuffo]. 



i. Description. The shag may readily be distinguished from the cormorant, 

 which it closely resembles, by its conspicuously smaller size and twelve tail feathers. 



