harsh croaks. As we approached they took wing, and after flying round us 

 once or twice at a respectful distance, they retired to the sea and alighted some 

 distance off. The whole of the rocks in the immediate vicinity of the nests 

 were covered, fully an inch deep, with a yellowish-white, evil-smelling coat of 

 rotten fish, and droppings of the birds, and in many of the nests we found the 

 remains of fair-sized fish, half rotten for preference, and generally headless. I 

 counted fifty-three nests huge heaps of seaweed, some of them over two feet 

 high one especially large one was placed on the highest pinnacle of the island, 

 and must have contained two wheelbarrow-loads of seaweed. The number of 

 eggs in the nests varied from two to five, though four seemed to be the most 

 common number. 



Having contented myself with the five eggs out of the large nest before 

 mentioned, and taken several photographs and sketches, I sat down some way 

 from the nests to write down some notes and change my plates. The Cormorants 

 at once returned. I had just got all my plates changed, and was writing notes, 

 when I heard a most fearful din arise among the Cormorants. On looking at 

 them through my glasses, I saw that the owner of the big nest was being attacked 

 by several of her neighbours. During the struggle I saw her eject an egg from 

 her pouch, and on going up to the spot to verify the fact, found the broken egg 

 and two others in the nest which I had emptied not five minutes before ! The 

 wretched bird was evidently receiving punishment for theft. 



The nest of the Cormorant is usually a large bulky structure of seaweed, 

 and is added to from year to year ; the eggs are generally laid in a slight hollow 

 among the bare seaweed, but occasionally a few pieces of sea-campion or grass 

 are added as a sort of lining. Inland, where seaweed is not obtainable, the nests 

 are made of sticks, reeds, and water plants, or bits of heather or turf, and 

 slightly lined with a few pieces of green sedge or grass. 



The eggs laid vary in number from three to five, very rarely six. The 

 outside of the shell is entirely covered with a white chalky substance, though 

 the greenish colour of the shell generally shows through in patches ; when held 

 up to the light they are emerald green inside. They vary in length from 2-9 to 

 2-4 inches, and in breadth from 17 to 1-5 inches. Large eggs of the Cormorant 

 are not easily confused with small eggs of the Gannet, on account of the much 

 greater breadth of the latter ; small eggs of the Cormorant are, however, abso- 

 lutely indistinguishable from large eggs of the Shag. 



Young in down are sooty black ; they have dark brown legs, and feet with 

 paler webs, and a flesh-coloured bill. 



10 



