252 The Zoologist — June, 1866. 



Cry. — The general cry is "gau gau," in a hoarse key, indicating 

 anger; for various causes it is sounded ahnost musicall^i : one of the 

 warning notes is " go a e." The call is " crew a oop ;" the first syllable 

 vibrates the throat and is deep and guttural, the last two are wild and 

 plaintive, and heard a mile or more off of a fine day. My experience of 

 the shag is that it is solely a marine bird, and not to be met with after 

 the waters of rivers loose their brackishness : the cormorant is quite the 

 reverse. Thompson, in his ' Natural History of Ireland,' gives Irish 

 instances of its occurrence inland. " I have been favoured," says he, 

 *' by the Earl of Enniskillen with two specimens of the green 

 cormorant, taken far inland on different occasions. One of them in the 

 month of January, 1839 (?), and I think soon after the great hurricane, 

 was captured alive near Swanlibar, in the county of Cavan, under Ben 

 Eachlin, and nearly thirty English miles from the sea. The lad who 

 caught the specimen stated that it was accompanied by four more 

 birds of the same kind. It was quite strong and fed well on fish. On 

 the 16th of September of that year, the other individual, an immature 

 female, obtained near Florence Court, about twenty miles inland, was 

 sent to me. I have very lately heard from the Rev. G. Robinson, who 

 resides near Lough Neagh, that the green cormorant habitually 

 frequents that great sheet of water, where he has not, however, seen 

 more than two in company, or more than that number in one day ; they 

 were generally sunning themselves in some of the islands when 

 observed." The iwo first-mentioned examples were evidently driven 

 inland by stress of weather. On Lough Neagh I have seen the cor- 

 morant, but not the shag, or, as it is termed, the green cormorant. 

 Again, Thompson would lead his readers to consider the shag a scarce 

 bird on the coast of Dublin : — " I have seen specimens which were 

 killed in Dublin Bay, and was informed in 1837 (by Mr. H. H. 

 Dombrain) that about the month of November or December, every 

 y^ar, si.\. or seven of these birds appear near the Pigeon-House Battery 

 there." Mr. Dombrain had very little experience of the shag in 

 Dublin Bay, evidently, for I can count the bird by twenties every day 

 from October till March on the White Bank (just beside the Pigeon- 

 House Fort), at the mouth of the Liffey, on the bar, on the shoals of 

 Sutlon, Baldoyle and Howth, and along all the coast from Howth to 

 Dal key. At any hour of the day they can be seen swimming or flying. 

 What is more, for a good purpose, I have shot a dozen in a few hours, 

 and will engage to do so again within rifle-shot of the Pigeon-House, 

 and only get every fourth bird I see. 



