332 The Zoologist— August, 1866. 



tame with Dick, and would never attempt to fly away. About eight 

 each morning, with a dish of fish, I go into the aviary, and am set 

 upon by shags, gulls, cormorants, magpies and a kestrel falcon, all 

 striving for their share, for 1 have them piscivorous, even the falcon; 

 a dozen of herrings are thrown into the pond, and every shag is 

 beneath the water in an instant, sometimes even snapping the fish 

 before it touches the water. Should the fish be large I cut them on 

 the top of a shed, which acts the part of a cave for the shags, and 

 with the magpies on my shoulder and the cormorants and shags on 

 the shed, 1 have a busy lime to give each his due. So fearless are 

 the shags that they will take the fish from under the knife ; their dart 

 is unerring, and if fish be tliro\\n them it is unfailingly caught before 

 touching the ground, and so quickly that no opening of the bill can be 

 seen. After feeding they invariably wash, thoroughly saturating the 

 feathers by striking the closed wing on the rump, lying on one side 

 and splashing round and round, beating the water with outspread 

 wings and diving. When well drenched they get on the edge of the 

 lank, the water dripping off, and furiously shake the wings, and wag 

 the tail till it sometimes hums; they then stand with the body hori- 

 zontal and beat the closed wings on the back. The sun is next sought 

 for, and the highest point to perch on attained ; here the wings are 

 spread and fanned, the feathers preened and insects removed. They 

 are fed again at two and again at six, so that their lives are made up 

 of feeding, washing, drying and sleeping. In winter they always stand, 

 but in the breeding season they lie down and also squat like the 

 divers : this habit, in May and June, has struck me very forcibly, as 

 being a means of Nature to naturalize the bird to the incubating 

 position, fur females of a year old will thus sit for hours, the same as 

 adults, and only in these months. Another strange thing is the much 

 smaller quantity eaten in summer than in winter : this I cannot but 

 believe an economy of Nature, adapting the bird to privation itself 

 that it may not stint its young. Once the bird has gone to roost you 

 could not persuade it to eat another morsel. When very hungry their 

 loud hoarse " gauk" is repeatedly uttered, and woe to the stranger that 

 enters the aviary : at these times the eyes attain a most malevolent 

 sparkling look, and the bird is not the thing to play with. The hook 

 of the bill can be driven through the hand, and the edges of the 

 mandibles will cut like a knife. One of the ugliest cuts 1 have ever 

 seen given was by a shag, the large vein on the back of the hand 

 being torn up. To those they know the cry is low, rather musical. 



