coasts. 



226 THE BIRDS OF OUR RAMBLES. 



number, and olive -gray in colour. They are 

 generally laid in May or early June. The much 

 rarer GOOSANDER (Af. merganser] breeds sparingly 

 in the Highlands, but is not sufficiently numerous 

 to merit more than a passing notice here. It is 

 best known as a winter visitor to our islands, 

 becoming least common in the south. The 

 creamy white eggs are laid in a hollow tree. 



Two very noteworthy birds met with on 

 AH rocky almost every rocky coast are the CORMORANT 

 {Phalacrocorax car bo] and the SHAG (P. cristatus). 

 These dusky birds may often be seen flying in a 

 heavy, laboured way across the water, or entering 

 or leaving the caves and fissures of the cliffs. 

 The habits of both birds are very similar. Some- 

 times quite a gathering of Cormorants or Shags 

 (of the two, the latter is perhaps the most gre- 

 garious) may be seen sitting on a rock sunning 

 themselves, and from time to time we may come 

 across them fishing close inshore in the deep 

 water below the cliffs. Their food is composed 

 of fish, which they catch either by diving and 

 pursuing them under water, or by plunging from 

 a rock. A rocky island as at the Femes or 

 even a tree at some distance inland, but much 

 more frequently a ledge of the cliffs is employed 

 by the Cormorant as a nesting-site ; but the Shag 

 always prefers a cave or a rock-fissure by the sea 

 in which to make its nest. Both species make 

 rude, slovenly nests of sticks, dry weeds, and 

 grass, flat in form, and usually covered with 

 droppings and decomposing fish. The eggs of 

 each (two or three in number) are the same in 

 colour a delicate green when newly laid, but 

 thickly coated with chalk, and soon becoming 



