134 Order V 



Britain, where the bird occurs at all seasons of year 

 on the sea in the most suitable localities. The elongated 

 eggs are light greenish blue with a white chalky covering, 

 and are about four in number. The naked and blind 

 black nestlings feed themselves by thrusting their heads 

 and necks into the parents' bills. Abroad the Cor- 

 morant inhabits Europe, Asia, and the Atlantic coast 

 of North America, except the extreme north, and also 

 northern Africa, AustraUa, and New Zealand, the nesting 

 sites being not uncommonly in marshes and swamps. 



The Shag {Phalacrocorax graculris) is entirely black 

 with metaUic reflexions, and has a frontal crest in 

 spring. Its nest is often on a ledge in a cave, but 

 equally often on a cliff or under a large boulder ; 

 the eggs are like those of the Cormorant, but smaller, 

 and are laid rather earlier in April. The flight is 

 hardly so heavy, but otherwise the habits are identical. 

 Locally this "Green Cormorant" is the more common 

 of the two species, especially in the west of Britain, 

 but abroad it is only found from the northern coasts 

 of Lapland by way of Iceland, Norway, and France to 

 Portugal, if we consider the widely spread Mediter- 

 ranean form to be distinct. By our fishermen the bird 

 is called the Scart or Scarf, a name less commonly 

 used for its congener. 



The Gannet or Solan goose {Sula bassana), a very local 

 species in Britain, breeds on Grassholm in Pembroke- 

 shire, Ailsa Craig at the mouth of the Clyde, St Kilda, 

 several rocky stacks in the north-west of Scotland, two 

 in the south of Ireland, and the well-known Bass Rock 

 in the Firth of Forth. In some of the northern locali- 

 ties, however, the number of individuals is enormous. 

 The Shetlands, Fseroes, Iceland, and some islands in 



