THE CORMORANTS AND SHAGS. 
215 
a lining. There is also generally a lining of fre.sh green leaves 
of sea-parsley or some other plant, according to Mr. Seebohm. 
Eggs. — Two or three in number. The ground-colour is 
green, but this is generally obscured by a chalky-white cover- 
ing, which can be scraped off. Axis, 2-4-2'8 inches; diam., 
’■S-i' 75 - 
II. THE .STTAG. PHALACROCORAX GRACULUS. 
Pelecamts gracithis, Linn. S. N. i. p. 217 (1766). 
Fhalacrocorax graculus, Macg. Br. B.v. p. 392 (1852); Dresser, 
B. Eur. vi. p. 163, pi. 389 (1879 ) ! B. O. U. List Br. B. 
p. 106 (1883); Saunders, ed. Yarr. Br. B. iv. p. 151 
(1884); Seebohm, Br. B. iii. p. 656 (1885); Saunders, 
Man. Br. B. p. 351 (1889) ; T.ilford, Col. Fig. Br. B. part 
xxii. (1892). 
[P/ate UP) 
Adult Male. — General colour above and below black, with a 
bottle-green or oily-green gloss, all the feathers margined with 
velvety-black on the mantle, scapulars, and wing-coverts, these 
parts having also a bronzy reflection ; tail-feathers twelve ; 
“ inside of mouth and skin round the gape pale orange-yellow ; 
naked skin of chin and throat b'ack, thickly dotted with yellow ; 
feet and toes blackish ; iris bright green ” ( W. R. Ogilvie- 
Grant). Total length, 27 inches; culmen, 2-5; wing, ii'o; 
tail, 5-5 ; tarsus, 2 '35. 
Adult Female. — Similar to the male. Total length, 26 inches ; 
wing, 10 ’5. 
Young Birds — Brown above, glossed with green, the feathers 
edged with darker brown, which becomes much abraded and 
turns to whity-brown, the tail-feathers being margined with 
whity-brown; sides of face and under surface of body brown, 
the throat white, and the lower abdomen also dingy-white ; 
feet and toes reddish. The young Shags can always be dis- 
tinguished from young Cormorants by their twelve tail-feathers, 
and they are browner underneath. 
The black plumage is assumed in the first spring, and is 
accomplished by a gradual darkening of the feathers of the 
