ch, "Cormoran
largup."--The Shag almost entirely takes the place, as well as usurps
the name, of its big brother, as in the Islands it is invariably called
the Cormorant. The local Guernsey-French name "Cormoran" is applicable
probably to either the Shag or the Cormorant. The Shag is the most
numerous of the sea birds which frequent the Islands, the Herring Gull
not even excepted, every nook and corner of the high cliffs in all the
Islands being occupied by scores of Shags during the breeding-season.
They take care, however, to place their nests in tolerably inaccessible
places that cannot well be reached without a rope. The principal
breeding-places are--in Guernsey, about the Gull Cliffs, and from there
to Petit Bo, and a few, but not so many, on the rocks between there and
Fermain, wherever they can find a place; none breed on the north or west
side of the Island; in Jethou and Herm, and on the rock called La
Fauconniere, a few also breed, but not so many as in Guernsey, and we
did not find any breeding on the Amfrocques or the other rocks to the
north of Herm. On Sark they breed in great numbers, mostly on the west
side nearest to Guernsey, and on the Isle de Marchant or Brechou,
especially on the grand cliffs on both sides the narrow passage which
divides that Island from the mainland of Sark, and from there to the
Coupee, and from there round Little Sark to the Creux Harbour on the
south-east. On the east side, that towards the French coast, there are
few or none breeding, the cliffs not being so well suited to them; a
great number breed also on Alderney, on the high cliffs on the south and
east, but none on Burhou. The Shags appear to breed rather earlier than
the Herring Gulls; when I was in the Islands in June, 1876, almost all
the Shags had hatched, and the young were standing by their parents on
the rocks close to their nests. When I visited some of the
breeding-places of the Shags on the 27th of May, 1878, neither Gulls nor
Shags had hatched, but when I went to the Gull Cliff on the 20th of June
I found nearly all the Shags had hatched, though none or very few of the
Herring Gulls had done so; some of the young Shags had left the nests
and were about on the water; others were nearly ready to leave, and
several were little things quite in the down. Though it is generally
easy to look down upon the Shags on their nests, and to get a good view
at a short distance of the eggs and the young, it is, as a rule, by no