262 BRITISH BIRDS' EGGS. 



rope a swinging motion, and then taking advantage of it, as 

 it brought me to the face of the cliff, that I was enabled to 

 get a footing on the ledges which contained them. These 

 nests were composed of thick sticks, plants from the rocks, 

 grass, ketlocks which had gone to seed, and a little wool. 

 There were four young birds in one, three eggs in another, 

 two' in a third, and one newly laid in a fourth." 



THE GREEN-CHESTED CORMORANT. Pkalacrocorax cris- 

 tatus. The Shag, Green Cormorant, or Green-crested Cor- 

 morant, chooses the tops of rocks surrounded by water, the 

 ledges of sea-side precipices, and also caves, as its resorts 

 for nidification. Both the nest and eggs closely resemble 

 those of the Common Cormorant, but the eggs of the pre- 

 sent are smaller than those of the last bird. The egg of 

 the Shag is chalky- white (except as stained by the nest), 

 long and narrow in form, and green inside. This species is 

 generally distributed around our shores, but not so nume- 

 rously as the last. 



THE SOLAN GOOSE. Sula bassana. The present species, 

 known also as the Gannet, visits our shores in spring, the 

 birds belonging to it remaining to incubate, and breeding 

 by thousands in some localities around our coasts. The 

 principal stations in which they occur around our islands 



