On landing, it is by no means easy to obtain a sure footing ; 

 the rock is entirely covered with their dung, and is very slip- 

 pery, and intolerably foetid. The nests, which are placed at 

 short distances from each other, are large, and, in some in- 

 stances, singularly lofty, measuring upwards of two feet in 

 height ; they are composed of a large quantity of the coarser 

 sea weeds, and lined with finer weeds and dry grass ; their eggs 

 are foiu* or five in number, the outer surface of which is soft 

 and white, discovering, in places where it is deficient, a hard 

 shell, of a blueish-green colour ; it is easily scraped off with a 

 knife.— Plate LXXIV., Fig. 1. 



CARBO GRACULUS. (meyer.) 

 Shag, Green Cormorant. 



In its habits and nidification the Shag greatly resembles 

 the Cormorant ; it differs from it in preferring for its nest 

 the ledges and apertures on the face of some lofty cliff; it is, 

 too, less sociable, and may be seen here and there perched up- 

 right upon its nest, and sometimes only a few yards above 

 the sea ; at other times upwards of a hundred feet high, and 

 generally in places exceedingly difficult of access. I have 

 many times, when climbing for its eggs, been sadly tempted 

 by seeing them within a few yards of me without a possibi- 

 lity of obtaining them ; they are like those of the Cormorant 

 outwardly, of a soft chalky substance, which is easily rubbed 

 off, leaving a hard greenish shell beneath ; when fresh laid, 

 they are white ; they are, however, usually seen daubed all 

 over with dirty green, with which they are stained by the 

 sea-weed verv soon after they are laid, in the same manner 



