CORMORANT 143 
three eggs was taken here in 1900 as early as 8th April; 
on 24th May next year some nests contained eggs, while 
one had hatched out. The young utter a whistling cry. 
In hot sunshine I have noticed the birds apparently in 
great discomfort, sitting on their nests with beaks wide 
open, as though gasping for breath. 
The nests are large structures, much more bulky than 
those of the Shag, much whitened, and never hidden in 
fissures like those of the latter. 
I have seen the characteristic white thigh-patch appar- 
ently fully developed as early as 5th February. 
Manx people as a rule do not distinguish the Cormorant 
and Shag, but, as above mentioned, the young white-breasted 
Cormorant seems to be accounted distinct, and called Orrag, 
or Arrag Vooar or ’ooar, a name, however, which may 
sometimes denote a Diver (Colymbus) and is associated 
with mythical attributes. ‘One man, says Mr. J. R. Moore, 
‘declares that it hatches on the sandy coast, but none of 
them has seen it on or near the coasts. It gave a hoarse 
whistle. Four persons told the same informant that it 
hatched its eggs on the water, and one said that he saw a 
specimen caught with its eggs in a kind of pouch! 
This is at most seasons a familiar bird in British waters. 
On the north and south coasts of Ireiand the colonies of the 
Cormorant are many, but according to Ussher and Warren, 
between Antrim and the Saltees it breeds only on Lambay 
and on Wicklow Head. In Galloway it nests both on the 
coast and on inland lakes, one of the latter, within forty 
miles of Man, holding a very large number of birds. It 
does not now breed in Cumberland or Lancashire. There 
is a colony on St. Tudwal’s Island, and others on the 
Bird Rock near Nevin and the Anglesea coast. In Shet- 
land, Orkney, and the Outer Hebrides, there are colonies, 
but the Shag nests much more numerously in all. 
