SHAG. 
457 
SEDGE WARBLER. — A name for the Sedge Bird. 
SEMI PALMATED. — When the webs reach only half way to 
the toes. 
SERULA. — A name for the Red Merganser. 
SHAG {Phalacrocorax graculus, Cuvier.) 
Pelecamis Graculus, Linn. Syst, 1. p. 217. 4. — Gmel. Syst. 2. p. 574. — Lath. Ind. 
Orn. 2. p. 887. 15. — Corvus aquaticus minor, Raii, Syn. p. 123. A. 4. — Will. 
p. 249. t. 63. — Carbo Graculus, Meyer, Tasschenb. Deut. 2. p. 578. — Temm. 
Man. d’Orn. 2. 897. — Phalacrocorax, Briss. 6. p. 516. 2. — Ih. 8vo. 2. p. 496 — 
Petit Cormoran, ou Nigaud, Buff. Ois. 8. p. 319. — Shag, or Crane, TPi//. (Angl.) 
p. 330. t. 63 Lath. Syn. 6. p. 598. 14.— Lewin's Br. Ilirds, 7. t. 264. — Wale. 
Syn. 1. t. 93. — Bait. Cat. Dorset, p. 21. — Flem, Br. Anim. p. 117. 
This species is in weight about four pounds ; length twenty-nine 
inches ; breadth three feet ten inches ; the bill dusky, near four inches 
long ; sides of the mouth and chin bare yellow skin, minutely speckled 
with black on the latter. The whole bird appears, at a little distance, 
to be black, but on nearer inspection the head and neck, upper breast 
and rump, are found to be glossed with green ; the feathers are some- 
what pointed on the upper part of the back, scapulars, and wing coverts, 
and beautifully glossed with purple, violet, and green, each feather re- 
gularly bordered with velvet-black ; the under parts of the body less 
glossed with ' green ; legs dusky black ; middle clav/ serrated ; the 
feathers next to the bare skin on the chin are usually white. 
The female weighs about three pounds and a quarter ; length twenty- 
seven inches ; the feathers on the upper parts are not so dark and 
glossed with the colours of the male ; but the margin of the feathers 
on the scapulars and coverts are black ; the under parts are dusky and 
grey mixed ; the legs and toes of a dusky colour, lightest on the fore 
part ; the irides of both sexes green, and the tail is composed of twelve 
stiff feathers, dusky, dashed with cinereous. 
The above description is taken from the birds shot from their nest ; 
but we have seen many others of a lighter colour, both above and below ; 
and some where the belly was of a dirty white, mixed with brownish 
ash-colour; all of which had twelve feathers in the tail, and their 
weight did not exceed four pounds two ounces, which is the material 
distinction between this and the cormorant, which weighs six or seven 
pounds, and has the tail invariably composed of fourteen feathers. The 
habits of these two species somewhat differ. This is never known to 
visit our fresh-water rivers, which the cormorant frequently will, and in 
some places make their nest in trees, on which they often perch, by the 
sides of rivers. The Shag keeps solely to the salt-water, and breeds 
on our rocky coasts, where it makes a nest of sticks and sea-weed, and 
