676 The Zoologist — April, 1867. 



most of them young birds. They are all called "loons" in the 

 neighbourhood : this is also the name by which these divers go on 

 this coast. 



Cormorant and Shag.— The common cormorant is more plentiful 

 than the shag ; they associate together in roosting, in great 

 numbers, on a lofty cliff in the South Suter. They are both called 

 "scarfs" in the neighbourhood. Every morning the cormorant might 

 be seen winging his way, generally alone and flying near the surface of 

 the water, round the rocks and up the Firth, to some chosen feeding- 

 ground, and returning in the evening to roost, nearly always in pairs, 

 and flying high in the air. By far the greatest number, however, I 

 met with in the deep water at the mouth of the Firth, where they 

 might be seen diving sometimes in what I know to be tremendously 

 deep water, and at other times fishing near the shore, or sitting lazily 

 on the point of some favourite rock watching the fishermen taking up 

 their nets. The cormorant and his brother the shag are certainly fine 

 birds, and how graphically Mr. Blake-Knox describes them, when he 

 says of the latter " he looks like some evil spirit coming upon you, 

 his body looming tremendous in the fog." Their diving powers are 

 very great, but they go to work in a different way when they dive for 

 safety. It is amusing to watch them when, unmolested, they are 

 fishing ; how they jump out of the water, turn a " somerset" and take 

 a regular "header" into the finny depths; but then when they are 

 " up for diving," and you have fired at them once or twice, they swim 

 low in the water and are out of sight like a shot, as quick as a northern 

 diver. One sunny frosty day I watched numbers of them sitting on 

 their perches in the great cliff 1 have mentioned above, drying them- 

 selves, opening their wings ever and anon, and then launching them- 

 selves heavily into the abyss they would fly out in a small circle and 

 return with a soar to their nest. I often saw them, like the great 

 northern diver, endeavouring in vain to swallow " dabs " and flat fish, 

 and after tossing up their heads and shaking them from side to side 

 they would throw away the fish, and generally rise from the water and 

 fly away. While writing on the cormorant I cannot forbear to remark 

 on Mr. Blake-Knox's excellent letter on the shag. It is exactly in 

 coincidence with my little experience when he says " they do not dive 

 at the flash." I have always noticed that the shot from the gun always 

 strikes round the shag or cormorant before he dives, and have often 

 wondered how he escaped. The fact is, their feathers are saturated 

 with water and the shot glides off them like so much india-rubber, and 



