356 Ornithological Observations and Reflections in Shetland. 
indeed, can hardly be better than another on a uniform greens- 
ward — and no other obtainable advantage can be even con- 
jectured. Since however, the feeling first suggested as a 
•cause of these outbreaks is too human a one to be lightly allowed 
to a bird, to what are we to ascribe them ? All rivalry of 
courtship has now long been over, but the mere presence of 
one bird close by another of the same sex, might, through 
association, call forth this deep-seated impulse, though felt 
in a mild and evanescent degree, and to this perhaps, such 
occasional disturbings of an otherwise complete harmony are 
to be attributed. 
For the most part, the members of these little autumn 
assemblies either stand statuesquely still, or else preen, more 
or less assiduously, the feathers of the throat and breast. 
Every now and again, however, one of them will have a little 
outburst of wing-flapping and then remain with them spread 
and half-drooping for a short while, before folding them up 
again. This characteristic action of the Shag, as well as of the 
Common Cormorant, has often been remarked upon, and it 
seems to be generally assumed that the wings are held, thus 
extended, in order to dry them, which, indeed, it looks like. 
But why should a bird whose whole body is so constantly 
wetted, and from whose plumage the water must run at least 
as easily as ‘ from a duck’s back,’ be under the smallest necessity 
of doing this ? Moreover whilst many birds that have only 
just come in from the water keep their wings closed, others 
fly down to it again immediately after shaking them, whilst 
none keep them spread for more than quite a short time. The 
action must be looked upon as a personal trait or trick in the 
Cormorant tribe, emotional probably in its initiative, and 
having no ulterior utilitarian object. What may have been 
its origin is difficult to say, but in ascending the wet, slippery 
rock, at a steep angle, these birds are often constrained to 
help themselves by spreading and waving the wings in just 
the way that they do, when at ease, before holding them open, 
and an action constantly performed, with a certain purpose, 
may become so accustomed as to be ready to leap out, as it 
were, upon any and every occasion, or upon no occasion at all. 
Any little emotional impulse will then give rise to it, such as 
the mild excitement probably arising in the bird’s breast, as 
it determines to flv down from the cliff where it has been 
standing, into the sea. That which excitement, in general, 
produces, sexual excitement would probably, also, produce if 
the field were not entirely occupied by other and more special- 
ised actions, as is perhaps the case here. 
On the same grassy summit crowning the rocky sea- 
battlements where the Shags are congregated, there is also — 
a little beyond them — an assemblage of Gulls — for the most 
Naturalist, 
