216 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



under surface, as well as by a complete moult of some of the 

 feathers, the quills being entirely renewed. 



Nestlings. At first completely bare and of a sooty lead- 

 colour, afterwards densely covered with sooty-brown down. 



In the winter the Shag puts on a crest, which is shed, like 

 the ornamental filaments of the Cormorant, by the time the 

 nesting commences in April, but Lord Lilford says that he has 

 shot specimens in August on the coast of Cornwall which still 

 showed remains of a crest, while in the Mediterranean he never 

 found a Shag with a crest at any season. This would go to prove 

 that the Shag of the Mediterranean is a different species from 

 that of Northern Europe, as has been insisted upon by Profes- 

 sor Brusina, who has named the crestless Shag Phalacrocorax 

 croaticus, but if really different, it will have to bear the older 

 name of P. desmaresti. 



Kange in Great Britain. In many parts of England the Shag 

 is more plentiful than its larger ally. It occurs on all our 

 rocky coasts, being more abundant on the western side of 

 England and Scotland, especially on the rocky shores of 

 Wales and in the western isles. In Ireland Mr. Ussher says 

 that it breeds in all the maritime counties frequented by the 

 Cormorant ; but on the coasts of Galway and Mayo it appears 

 to be much more numerous than that species. 



Eange outside the British Islands The Shag is a bird of Western 

 Europe, for, though it is common on the coasts of Norway and 

 breeds in the Faeroes, it has not been met with farther west than 

 Iceland, and is almost unknown in the Baltic, being rare along 

 the shores of the North Sea. It becomes commoner, however, 

 on the Atlantic coasts of France and Portugal, and if P. 

 desmaresti should prove to be only P. graculus in its crestless 

 stage, then the range of the Shag will extend throughout the 

 Mediterranean. 



Habits. The Shag is essentially a maritime species and is 

 not met with on inland waters, though it does occasionally 

 occur. It feeds entirely on fish and is a capital swimmer and 

 diver, and that it can descend to a great depth is shown by the 

 fact that it has been caught in a crab-pot lying twenty fathoms 

 down. Lord Lilford has given a most interesting account of 

 his visits to some of the breeding-places of the Shag in the 



