THE S11A(J. 
321 
in which they breed may ha known at tlie distance of a mile 
or more. The eggs of the Shag are often covered with numerous 
small blood-like dots ; indeed, nearly all that I have seen newly 
taken from the nest have been spotted in this manner — even 
those which were fresh laid. T am half inclined to imagine 
that these marks really are blood, and are caused by the rupture 
of small vessels during the act of laying ; though why they 
should occur in these eggs more than in others I am not pre- 
pared to say. The thick crust of chalky substance with which, 
as is well known, the eggs of these birds and of the Cormorants 
are surrounded, must be soft when the egg is first laid ; for it 
sometimes distinctly bears the marks of the rough soles of the 
bird’s feet, and more frequently of the claws or of the stiff tail- 
feathers. The eggs of the Shag vary greatly in shape, some 
being roundish, others pointed at one end, and others, again, 
narrow and greatly elongated. The egg of the Shag is never 
eaten, even by the poorest of the people. The albumen has a 
greenish tinge, and is said not to coagulate readily, even after 
long-continued boiling. 
One October day, at Haroldswick, I saw a Shag catch a 
large fish ; and just as the last inch of the tail disappeared a 
Great Black-backed Gull made a stoop towards the Shag. The 
latter merely stretched out its neck and uttered about the most 
hideous sound that I ever heard proceed from the throat of a 
bird, whereupon the Gull, apparently in consternation, imme- 
diately turned tail and fled. 
[To find a parallel to the abhon’ence with which the Shag is 
regarded in the islands, one would almost need to point to a 
Highland keeper’s detestation of the Hooded Crow. Certainly, 
if there be such a thing as caste among birds — and there is 
something very like it — the Shag is treated as the Pariah among 
water-fowl. It would not be very easy to put in words the 
precise points of difference in habits and general type which 
cause us to regard some birds as coarse and others as refined, 
but any one who has lived much with birds will readily appre- 
hend the reality of the distinction. Compare, for example, a 
X 
