811 AO. 
PHALACllOCOlUX GJIACULUS. 
From personal observation I can say but little as to the distribution of the Shag over the British Islands ; it 
has come under my notice only on the north-east coast of England, in the Firth of Forth, and around the 
northern and western coasts of the Ilighlands. Unlike Cormorants, these birds do not appear to make their 
way inland; I never observed even a single individual on any of the Scotch lochs, the Norfolk broads, or 
the Sussex rivers, all of which are favourite resorts of the nearly allied species. 
"While collecting specimens near the North Point, in the west of Boss-shire, at tlie end of May 1868, I was 
informed by the keepers that numbers of Cormorants bred in the caves and crevices of tlie rocks surrounding 
the Black Bay, and also near the Ru Bae ; on reaching the spot, however, I soon ascertained that the whole were 
Shags. The scenery on this part of the coast is wild and desolate in the extreme — the deep chasms and rifts in 
the cliffs, as well as the lai’ger caves frequented by tlie Shags, being dark and gloomy, forming a most fitting 
residence for these uncanny-looking birds. The nests and their occupants were in many instances scarcely 
visible in the dim light that penetrates to these recesses, the flash of an eye or the movement of a head usually 
attracting attention to the presence of the inhabitants. Several nests were placed at no great height in the caves, 
and, standing on the shoulders of a couple of sturdy Highlanders, I was enabled to inspect their contents, which 
consisted of both eggs and young, the latter for the most part newly hatehed. The breeding-stations on the 
Pinnacles at the Fern Islands appeared to be almost deserted at the time of my last visit, in the summer of 1867, 
only a single pair being seen about the islands. Though formerly a favourite resort of these birds, the east 
and west caves at the Bass Bock in the Firth of Forth are but seldom tenanted by them at the present dav. 
The nests I examined on the west coast of Boss-shire were built with large heather-stalks, together with a 
quantity of smaller twigs, a few stems of ferns with those of other plants were also intermixed, a warm and 
closely interwoven cup-shaped lining of coarse strands of grass and rush forming the interior*. The cradles 
constructed by this species arc, as a rule, of far less bulk than those of the Cormorant ; the juveniles on breakin" 
the egg-shell are naked, black, shapeless monstrosities, covered in due course by a hairy down of dark grey, 
almost approaching black. The immature in the first stage are arrayed in a light-breasted plumage after 
the manner of Cormorants ; having failed, however, to make satisfactory observations on either species 
while kept in confinement, I am unable to form an opinion as to the age at which the full adult plumage is 
assumed, though doubtless it is not put on till the third or fourth year. The beauty of the plumage of an adult 
can scarcely be judged by stuffed specimens or plates ; tbe bird must be viewed immediately after deatb, or the 
w'ondrous hues of bronze and green on the feathers of the back, which seldom retain their natural gloss for 
any length of time, can never be seen to perfection. 
* I refer to the composition of these nests somewhat minutely as the young are depicted in Gould's ‘ Birds of Great Britain,’ the most 
beautifully iUustrated work that I have ever seen, on a few strands of green seaweed and moss lying on an e.vposed rock a few feet above the level 
of the sea. The plate, however, gives by far the best representation of the old bird and young to be seen in any ornithological publication and but 
for the singular error referred to would have been as near perfection as can possibly be attained. 
