VOL. vn.] THE STEGANOPODES. 99 



are quite exceptional (only one being noted out of many 

 hundreds of nests, according to Mr. H. Raeburn) ; yet 

 Saxby states that they often lay as naany as five eggs. 

 In the Orkneys the Rev. J. R. Hale describes three as 

 the usual clutch, but noticed a few nests with four. In 

 Ireland, Mr. Ussher gives three as the usual number, 

 but adds that four are not uncommon, and Mr. H. Massey 

 has two sets of six in his collection from co. Kerry. In the 

 Annals of Scott. Nat. Hist., 1904, p. 19, Mr. J. Tomison 

 states that in a colony of over fifty nests, the eggs varied 

 in number from two to five, but three was the commonest 

 clutch. Professor CoUett, who was a reliable and careful 

 observer, states that in Norway the clutch ranges to 

 five or six, and that in one case eight eggs were found 

 in one nest, though probably this was due to two females 

 laying together. The Mediterranean race of the Shag 

 (P. graculus desmarestii) is also an early breeder, laying in 

 February and having full-grown young by the end of 

 April. Only on one occasion did I find the young still in 

 the nest early in May, and these were probably a second 

 laying. The usual clutch in the western Mediterranean 

 varies from two to three, frequently two only. 



On comparing the records of the two species given 

 above, it will be seen that while the breeding-season of 

 the Cormorant remains almost constant or is subject 

 only to slight variation, that of the Shag is extremely 

 variable and does not appear to depend upon latitude, 

 as the earliest dates from the Orkneys are not widely 

 different from those in the Mediterranean, while on the 

 other hand those for the Irish and Welsh coasts are much 

 later. The average number of eggs laid by the Shag is 

 less than that of the Cormorant, three being most usual 

 in the former species and four in the latter, but both 

 occasionally lay up to six eggs. 



The Gaistnet, Sula hassana (L.). 



Owing to the abnormally long incubation-period of 

 this species, which lasts for almost exactly six weeks, 



