The Birds of Britain; Their Distribution and Habits (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1916 Excerpt: ... cliffs, but consists of sticks and softer substances when on a tree or bush. Colonies are invariably formed, but are rarely found inland in Britain, where the bird occurs at all seasons of year on the sea in the most suitable localities. The elongated eggs are light greenish blue with a white chalky covering, and are about four in number. The naked and blind black nestlings feed themselves by thrusting their heads and necks into the parents' bills. Abroad the Cormorant inhabits Europe, Asia, and the Atlantic coast of North America, except the extreme north, and also northern Africa, Australia, and New Zealand, the nesting sites being not uncommonly in marshes and swamps. The Shag (Phalacrocorax graculus) is entirely black with metallic reflexions, and has a frontal crest in spring. Its nest is often on a ledge in a cave, but equally often on a cliff or under a large boulder; the eggs are like those of the Cormorant, but smaller, and are laid rather earlier in April. The flight is hardly so heavy, but otherwise the habits are identical. Locally this "Green Cormorant" is the more common of the two species, especially in the west of Britain, but abroad it is only found from the northern coasts of Lapland by way of Iceland, Norway, and France to Portugal, if we consider the widely spread Mediterranean form to be distinct. By our fishermen the bird is called the Scart or Scarf, a name less commonly used for its congener. The Gannet or Solan goose (Sula bassana), a very local species in Britain, breeds on Grassholm in Pembrokeshire, Ailsa Craig at the mouth of the Clyde, St Kilda, several rocky stacks in the north-west of Scotland, two in the south of Ireland, and the well-known Bass Rock in the Firth of Forth. In some of the northern localities, howev...