The Shag 51 



Cormorant, that it probably never ventures so far inland as 

 Bala Lake ; at any rate, I never saw it here. Salt water is, 

 of course, within easy flight of such birds, and the enter- 

 prising nature of the common Cormorant is well known, yet 

 I was surprised when one summer day one flew past me 

 almost on the very summit of Aran Mawddwy ; and how I 

 longed for the appearance of a falcon hungry enough to put 

 him down ! He had, no doubt, strayed from Craig-y-dern, 

 a well-known breeding rock between Towyn and Cader 

 Idris. Although the Shag is fully a third less in size than 

 its relative, the two birds are so frequently confounded in 

 Wales, that it may not be out of place to remind readers 

 that a certain distinction is always to be found in the 

 number of the quill feathers in the tail, the common 

 Cormorant having fourteen, the Shag only twelve. 



