330 The Zoologist — August, 1866. 



skin at under mandible has turned the colour of the adult, — hlack with 

 yellow warts ; the feet have grown much darker. The old feathers 

 of the scapulars have become dead, and look as if dirtied with mud. 

 The coverts have faded to brown, and the rest of the plumage of the 

 upper surface has faded from the adult green to dull green-brown. 

 (In collection). 



Diagnosis : between Second and Third Summer. — This age some- 

 times looks like the second summer at the same time, particularly 

 should the under parts of the third summer have faded to mouse-colour 

 and the vent to whitish. The italics are sufficient diagnosis — the old 

 feathers of second summer wearing to brown-green with a tawny 

 Ji-inge, and those of third summer appearing as W muddied, unlike any 

 other stage. Should any of the first winter feathers uulransmuted 

 still be in the scapulars no diagnosis is necessary. 



No. 13f. Third Summer. — June. Sinc'e last June the old feathers 

 have undergone the autumn fade (No. 9) ; the transmutation from 

 November till February (No. 10 — 13), and the fade to June, when they 

 die, after a life of a year. By the middle of June the moult begins, 

 and is finished generally by August, sometimes in July. The new 

 feathers are like the adults, but fade. (In collection). 



In No. 13, had I written April instead of May, and in No. 14 

 August for July, I should have matched the greater bulk of the bird 

 better, but as it is they are correct. Do not censure me, ye who know 

 not the sea-birds, but bear in mind that if a bird's eggs are taken the 

 future young will be a fortnight late ; if the young, a full month or six 

 weeks; only for this the plumages would run "as smooth as a 

 marriage bell." 



No. 19. Adult in June. The crest is lost after hatching, not 

 because the young are hatched, but because it has worn out. If the 

 bird was robbed of its young it would undoubtedly breed again 

 without any crest. One bird shot on the 27th of June, off the nest, 

 had one crest- feather still in the head and several stumps. The other 

 plumage is so in January. In birds of three years old the plumage of 

 the scapulars becomes muddy, and is undoubtedly renewed in the 

 autumn. Many adults do not moult anything but the quills and large 

 scapulars and the crest, the rest of the plumage transmuting. In very 

 old birds the bill is all black. The adult moult begins after the young 

 leave the nest. (In collection.) 



Tlie Shag in Con/inement. — In confinement the shag, notwith- 

 standing all that is said to the contrary, is easily tamed, as I have 



