->i6 
allen’s naturalist’s library. 
under surface, as well as by a complete moult of some of the 
feathers, the quills being entirely renewed. 
Nestlings. — At first completely bare and of a sooty lead- 
colour, afterwards densely covered with sooty-brown down. 
In the winter the Shag puts on a crest, which is shed, like 
the ornamental filaments of the Cormorant, by the time the 
nesting commences in April, but Lord I.ilford says that he has 
shot specimens in August on the coast of Cornwall which still 
showed remains of a crest, while in the Mediterranean he never 
found a Shag with a crest at any season. This would go to prove 
that the Shag of the Mediterranean is a different species from 
that of Northern Europe, as has been insisted upon by Profes- 
sor Brusina, who has named the crestless Shag Phalacrocorax 
croaticm, but if really different, it will have to bear the older 
name of P. desmaresU. 
Kange in Great Britain. — In many parts of England the Shag 
is more plentiful than its larger ally. It occurs on all our 
rocky coasts, being more abundant on the western side of 
England and Scotland, especially on the rocky shores of 
Wales and in the western isles. In Ireland Mr. Ussher says 
that it breeds in all the maritime counties frequented by the 
Cormorant ; but on the coasts of Galway and Mayo it appears 
to be much more numerous than that species. 
Kange outside tlie British Islands — The Shag is a bird of Western 
Europe, for, though it is common on the coasts of Norway and 
breeds in the Freroes, it has not been met with farther west than 
Iceland, and is almost unknown in the Baltic, being rare along 
the shores of the North Sea. It becomes commoner, however, 
on the .\tlantic coasts of France and Portugal, and if P. 
desmaresti should prove to be only P. gramlus in its crestless 
stage, then the range of the Shag will extend throughout the 
Mediterranean. 
Hahits. — ^The Shag is essentially a maritime species and is 
not met with on inland waters, though it does occasionally 
occur. It feeds entirely on fish and is a capital swimmer and 
diver, and that it can descend to a great depth is shown by the 
fact that it has been caught in a crab-pot lying twenty fathoms 
down. T.ord Lilford has given a most interesting account of 
his visits to some of the breeding-places of the Shag in the 
