216 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



the boat. I well remember, in my early shooting 

 days, firing at a Shag as it sat erect just within a 

 a high and narrow, but deep cleft in the promontory 

 of the Lizard ; my bird fell dead, but my first 

 impression was that I had killed at least a dozen or 

 more, as the other tenants of this cleft dropped 

 simultaneously into the water at my shot, and were 

 next seen by us swimming out to sea well beyond 

 gunshot range. In many parts of the Mediterranean 

 coasts the same sort of event has occurred to us, but 

 was generally accompanied by a rush out of Rock- 

 Doves, Alpine Swifts, Crag-Martins, and occasionally 

 by the plunge of a Hooded Seal. The Shag makes 

 a nest of sea-weed, which soon rots and becomes 

 saturated with the excrements of the birds ; as may 

 well be imagined, the odour proceeding from these 

 nurseries defies description, and I can only compare 

 it to that of some of the Jewish quarters of certain 

 cities on what are, as I have been assured, known as 

 " frizzling Fridays." In the Mediterranean the Shag 

 is a very early breeder ; in the Straits of Bonifacio, 

 where it swarms, the young birds had all left the 

 nests in the first week of May 1882, and, in fact, out 

 of many hundreds seen by us at that season, we only 

 found two that were unable to fly well. I have never 

 found more than four eggs in a nest of this species, 

 but five or even more are sometimes laid, these eggs 

 are of course smaller than those of the Cormorant, 

 but otherwise very closely resemble them. I never 

 remember to have seen a crest-bearing Shag at any 

 time of the year in Mediterranean waters, but, on 

 the other hand, I shot several with a few crest- 

 feathers remaining, in August, on the south coast 

 of Cornwall ; on that coast the present species 



