SHAG—GANNET. 
191 
dent sea-birds which inhabit the cHffs of the Isle of Wight 
during the summer. It is even doubtful whether it any 
longer breeds at Freshwater" ; but Hadfield in the "Zoolo- 
gist " for 1 884, says that several pairs bred in the Fresh- 
water Cliffs in 1883. 
We think that Wise^ confused the two species, and 
means the common cormorant alone when he writes that 
" the shag and the cormorant were the commonest birds 
along the south-east coast of the Forest in Gilpin's time " ; 
and Colonel Hawker in his "Diary" on August 6th, 1827, 
describes a chase which " no Leicestershire fox-hunt on 
record could surpass " that he had with " the shag, alias 
cormorant, alias ' parson,' " and here he undoubtedly refers 
to the shag, which he calls also a " green cormorant " a few 
lines before. 
It very rarely strays inland to fresh water, but has 
wandered to Alton (J. Curtis) and to Ringwood (Corbin). 
In the Winchester College collection is a specimen in 
breeding plumage from Bursledon, 1899. 
The Isle of Wight is the most easterly breeding-station 
known for this species on the south coast. 
Genus— 
14S. Siila bassana, Gannet. 
A winter visitor to all the coasts of the county and Isle 
of Wight, sometimes plentiful, according to the supply of 
food. 
It occasionally wanders inland, an immature specimen 
* '* New Forest." 
