92 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
at that date most of the nests contained fresh eggs. Eggs may 
be taken all through May and into June, though at the same 
time large young ones may be found. This irregularity of breed- 
ing time in the Cormorants is a striking contrast to the Gulls’ 
and Guillemots’ habit of mainly laying within a week or two of 
the rest of their colony. 
I have never seen more than three eggs or young ones in a 
Shag’s nest on the Saltees, though I have taken four elsewhere. 
The Common Cormorant can hardly find a part of the cliffs 
too much exposed to place its large nest. Of the three colonies 
of this species on the island, one range of nests is on the high 
cliff ledges at the extreme south end. 
In May last, the Cormorants being driven off by our approach, 
we saw eggs in these nests. We then went away for a little 
while, and, on returning, found the eggs had all been taken, 
evidently by the larger gulls, who were breeding in hundreds 
close by; for my friend Mr. White saw a Herring Gull seize 
and carry off a Razorbill’s egg, break it open, and eat it, and 
on going to the spot he picked up the shells of three eggs all 
broken or slit lengthwise. 
But by far the largest colony of Common Cormorants is on 
the Makestone Rock, a huge isolated pyramid divided from the 
east side of the Saltee by a narrow strait. It rises some eighty 
or a hundred feet from the sea, and its top is black with crowded 
birds, among which the forms of Cormorants rise conspicuous. 
I once swam the strait with a fishing-basket on my back and 
climbed the rock. The summit, of some extent, was covered with 
a living throng. On every prominence was a Cormorant’s nest 
(no Shags breeding here), the hollow spaces between the nests 
being filled with Guillemots hatching, their snaky necks turning 
in every direction. The birds at first gazed at me, and were slow 
to take wing, but when they did so the storm and dust raised by ~ 
their innumerable wings obliged me to crouch and close my eyes. 
I then found that there were young Cormorants of every size (it 
was the 9th June), from birds nearly full grown but still in 
down, to others just hatched. Round the edges of the platform 
the nests contained eggs in various stages of incubation, while 
the larger young ones towards the centre showed that the more 
favourable sites had been occupied first. There were deposits 
of guano between the knobs of rock of considerable age and 
