356 CORMORANTS 



stalks, seaweed, and a lining of grass. (PI. LXXII.) The decaying seaweed is often very 

 offensive, and many of the breeding colonies are inf ested with lice. Naumann states 

 that nesting material is provided by both sexes, but Tomison asserts that one bird 

 builds while the other provides material, and Blagg notices that nests with in- 

 cubated eggs, and even young, had received recent additions of fresh green weeds. 

 The eggs are similar in appearance to those of the cormorant, and have the same 

 imperfect surface deposit of white chalky matter almost concealing the blue under- 

 shell, but are smaller hi size. They vary, as a rule, from 3 to 5 in number, but 

 clutches of 6 are occasionally met with, and 8 eggs were found in one nest in Norway 

 (Collett). (PL V.) Average size of 38 eggs, 2-51x1-51 in. [63-8x38-3 mm.]. 

 Naumann states that both sexes share in incubation, and that the period lasts 

 from 24 to 27 days. The breeding season begins as a rule in April, but eggs have 

 been found in the Orkneys exceptionally as early as 24th February, and also in 

 March hi the Shetlands. There is no doubt that a second brood is reared, as many 

 birds are to be found with fresh eggs at the end of June, and young have been seen 

 hi the nests in the Orkneys as late as mid-September. [F. c. B. J.] 



5. Food. Same as the cormorant. Graba (quoted in Naumann, Vogel 

 Mitteleuropas) mentions as part of the shag's diet three species of fish which live 

 on the sea bottom, viz. Coitus scorpio, Clupea sprattus, and young of Pleuronectes 

 hippoglossus. In the stomach of a nestling dissected by Mr. W. P. Pycraft were 

 found small Crustacea, a periwinkle, remains of small fish, as well as otoliths and 

 vertebrae. [E. H.] 



