360 CORMORANTS 



screech all the time, while the old birds are very silent as a rule, 

 but when nesting, and especially when their nests are threatened, 

 utter a hoarse croaking note. After a few days the slaty black nest- 

 lings get their sight and become covered with dull black, velvety 

 soft down, upon which follows the first plumage in due course. Only 

 when too large for the mode of feeding described above do the young 

 feed on fish disgorged by their parents in front of them. 



Cormorants can easily be trained to catch fish. This is commonly 

 seen in Foochow and other places in China, and in this country the 

 late Captain F. H. Salvin possessed trained cormorants, which have 

 been seen by many persons. In the London Hippodrome fishing 

 cormorants have been exhibited for some time. In China a ring is 

 placed round the bird's neck, hindering it from swallowing its prey, 

 which the master takes from the somewhat unwilling bird. A good 

 many fish are thus caught during an afternoon, and this is considered 

 to be great sport. 



SHAG 

 [E. HARTERT] 



The shag differs from the common-cormorant in being entirely a 

 marine bird, fishing exclusively in the sea, and nesting only on ledges 

 on rocks, or in clefts and caves on the shore. Even in flying it never 

 crosses the land, but follows the coast-line, so as never to be out of 

 sight of the sea. 



Otherwise the habits of the shag are almost the same as those of 

 the common-cormorant. The general cry is described as a hoarse 

 "gau, gau," the call " crew-a-oop " (Zoologist, 1866, p. 252). "The flight 

 is generally low ; I have never seen it take such elevated flights as the 

 cormorant; it is powerful and very rapid, making quick headway 

 against the strongest gales ; it is performed by rapid beats and occa- 



