means easy to get at them without a rope; in a few places, however,
their nests are more accessible, and a hard climb on the rocks, perhaps
with a burning sun making them almost too hot to hold, will bring you
within reach of a Shag's nest; but I would not advise any one who tries
it to put on his "go-to-meeting clothes," as the deposit of guano on the
rocks will spoil anything; and only let him smell his hands after his
exploit--they do smell so nice! One of the parents generally stands by
the young after they are hatched, I suppose to prevent them from
wandering about and falling off the rocks, as the positions of some of
them seem very critical, there being only just room for the family to
stand; the other parent is generally away fishing, only returning at
intervals to feed his family and dry his feathers before making a fresh
start; sometimes one parent takes a turn to stay by the young, and
sometimes the other. The usual number of young appeared to be three,
sometimes only one or two; but in these cases it is probable that a
young one or two may have waddled off the rock, or got into a crevice
from which the parents could not extricate it, accidents which I should
think frequently happen; or an egg or two may have been blown from the
nest, or egg or young fallen a victim to some marauding Herring Gull
during the absence of the parents. The Shag assumes its full
breeding-plumage and crest very early; I have one in perfect
breeding-plumage, killed in February; and Miss C.B. Carey mentions in
the 'Zoologist' having seen one in Mr. Couch's shop with its full crest
in January. I do not quite know at what time the young bird assumes
adult plumage, but I have one just changing from the brown plumage of
the young to adult plumage. Many of the green feathers of the adult are
making their appearance amongst the brown ones; this one I shot on the
26th June, 1866, near the harbour Goslin, at Sark, near a large
breeding-station of Shags and Herring Gulls: if it is, as I suppose, a
young bird of the year, it would show a very early change to adult
plumage, but of course it might have been a young bird of the previous
year; but, as a rule, young birds of the previous year are not allowed
about the breeding-stations, any more than they are by the Herring
Gulls.

The Shag is included in Professor Ansted's list, but curiously enough
only marked as occurring in Guernsey. There are two adult specimens and
one young bird and one you