SHAG. 



457 



SEDGE WARBLER.— A name for the Sedge Bird. 

 SEMI PALMATED.— When the webs reach only half way to 

 the toes. 



SERULA. — A name for the Red Merganser. 

 SHAG {Phalacrocorax graculus, Cuvier.) 



Pelecanus Graculus, Linn. Syst. 1. p. 217. 4. — Gmel. Syst. 2. p. 574 Lath. Ind. 



Orn. 2. p. 887. 15. — Corvus aquaticus minor, Rati, Syn. p. 123. A. 4. — Will. 

 p. 249. t. 63. — Carbo Graculus, Meyer, Tasschenb. Deut. 2. p. 578. — Temm. 



Man. d'Orn. 2. 897.— Phalacrocorax, Briss. 6. p. 516. 2.— Ib. 8vo. 2. p. 496 



Petit Cormoran, ou Nigaud, Buff. Ois. 8. p. 319 Shag-, or Crane, Will. (Angl.) 



p. 330. t. 63 Lath. Syn. 6. p. 598. 14 Lewin's Br. Birds, 7. t. 264.— Wale. 



Syn. 1. t. 93.— Pult. Cat. Dorset, p. 21.— Flem. Br. Anim. p. 117. 



This species is in weight about four pounds ; length twenty-nine 

 inches ; breadth three feet ten inches ; the bill dusky, near four inches 

 long ; sides of the mouth and chin bare yellow skin, minutely speckled 

 with black on the latter. The whole bird appears, at a little distance, 

 to be black, but on nearer inspection the head and neck, upper breast 

 and rump, are found to be glossed with green ; the feathers are some- 

 what pointed on the upper part of the back, scapulars, and wing coverts, 

 and beautifully glossed with purple, violet, and green, each feather re- 

 gularly bordered with velvet-black ; the under parts of the body less 

 glossed with green ; legs dusky black ; middle claw serrated ; the 

 feathers next to the bare skin on the chin are usually white. 



The female weighs about three pounds and a quarter ; length twenty- 

 seven inches ; the feathers on the upper parts are not so dark and 

 glossed with the colours of the male ; but the margin of the feathers 

 on the scapulars and coverts are black ; the under parts are dusky and 

 grey mixed ; the legs and toes of a dusky colour, lightest on the fore 

 part ; the irides of both sexes green, and the tail is composed of twelve 

 stiff feathers, dusky, dashed with cinereous. 



The above description is taken from the birds shot from their nest ; 

 but we have seen many others of a lighter colour, both above and below; 

 and some where the belly was of a dirty white, mixed with brownish 

 ash-colour; all of which had twelve feathers in the tail, and their 

 weight did not exceed four pounds two ounces, which is the material 

 distinction between this and the cormorant, which weighs six or seven 

 pounds, and has the tail invariably composed of fourteen feathers. The 

 habits of these two species somewhat differ. This is never known to 

 visit our fresh-water rivers, which the cormorant frequently will, and in 

 some places make their nest in trees, on which they often perch, by the 

 sides of rivers. The Shag keeps solely to the salt-water, and breeds 

 on our rocky coasts, where it makes a nest of sticks and sea-weed, and 



