MB. J. H. GURNEY ON IRISH ROCK BlRHs. 
553 
coating of its coarse eggs, which is not always dry, sometimes runs 
to the end and a deposit of it coagulates, but beneath the shell is 
green. Shags are fond of a cave, and sit close, treating stones thrown 
at them with the utmost composure, twisting their snake-like necks 
about with curiosity, as if to see whence the disturbing missile has 
come. 
Their silky plumage ought to throw otf moisture quickly, but 
Shags and Cormorants are fond of standing on a rock and spreading 
out their wings to dry, a habit 1 have observed in the Indian 
Darter or Anhinga at the Zoological Gardens. Their bottle-green 
plumage is very rich, but no Shag was to be seen with a crest 
in May, and all the Cormorants had lost the white feathers which 
give them such a speckled mane in spring, and the white thigh 
patches. Professor Newton views these gay feathers as a nuptial 
plumage (‘ Dictionary,’ pp. 105, 10G), but I think they are rather to 
be regarded as the emblem of early spring. 
There are no Black Guillemots on the Saltees, though our eyes 
caught the buoyant flight of the Shearwater; but at a place along the 
coast, with Mr. Ussher’s help and guidance, I saw seven or eight 
“Tysties” in very perfect attire, and noticed a Razorbill chase or play 
with one. They lay in crevices, and an active Paddy got one egg 
which was so hard to blow that probably it was a forsaken one. 
Leaving the Rock Birds for the present let me now refer to a few 
of the more inland sorts, — though the life histories of all of them 
are told by Thompson in a standard work accessible to all, — for 
a visitor to Ireland is not unlikely to see something of novelty ) 
especially if he be there in the breeding season, and have the 
guidance of such a friend as Mr. Usslier. 
Two nests of considerable interest were the Grey Wagtail’s (hen 
bird on, sitting close), and the Twite’s on a heather-clad hill rising 
from the tine cliffs of Waterford. Again, it was a pretty sight to 
watch, in Mr. Ussher’s grounds near Waterford, a Siskin feeding her 
young ones, “ branchers,” which had left the nest in a tall silver fir 
tree hard by ; for these are species not to be seen in Norfolk. 
The abundance of Corncrakes, an abundance caused by the humid 
climate, is striking to an East Anglian; they are so numerous that 
in a long evening’s drive with Mr. TJssher we were scarcely ever out of 
hearing of their creaking notes, and their tameness has been dwelt 
upon in our ‘Transactions’ before (vol. iv. pp. 460, 678). I think 
