Shag

“ Again, when one first sees a shag throw itself down before another one, and go through a variety of strange gestures to which the latter makes no response—if not by a caress of the bill—it is impossible not to feel sure that the bird thus acting is the male shag, and the other the female. But when one afterwards sees two birds at the nest—male and female beyond a doubt—mutually or alternately performing some portion of these antics, though without the primary prostration, [1] what is one to think then? ”

“ The shag being a handsome and adorned bird, we might, on Darwinian principles, expect to find the æsthetic sense more developed in it than in its plainer and unadorned relative.
Both the sexes share in the duty and pleasure of incubation, and (as in some other species) to see them relieve each other on the nest is to see one of the prettiest things in bird life. The bird that you have been watching has sat patiently the whole morning, and once or twice as it rose in the nest and shifted itself round into another position on the eggs, you have seen the gleam of them as they lay there ”

“ The habits of the Shag are decidedly maritime: it rarely quits the sea to follow the course of a river, nor does it perch on trees, like the other Cormorants. It makes a large nest, composed of sea-weed, in the fissures, and on the ledges of rocks; many associating together; Col. Montagu says he has seen thirty nests close together on a small rock. Three or four eggs are laid, as large as those of a hen, of a chalky white surface, varied with pale blue. ”

“ A shag (I think the female bird) is sitting on her nest with the young ones, whilst the male stands on a higher ledge of the rock a yard or so away. He now jumps down and stands for a moment with head somewhat erected and beak slightly open. Then he makes the great pompous hop which I have described before, coming down right in front of the female, who raises her head towards him and opens and closes the mandibles several times in the approved manner. ”

“ But when darkness falls it remembers its nest and speeds home to the rock, taking its place down in the little black burrow, while the mate comes forth and spreads its wings out over the heaving water, not to return, it may be, until the night and the day have passed and twilight falls again.
We landed on a ledge of Shag Rock, driving off a big bull sea-lion who claimed this particular slab of rock as his own. We backed up close to the shelf in a yawl boat, and as the waves rose and fell, watched our chance to leap from the stern of the little boat to the rock. ”

“ The Shag is widely distributed round our coasts, especially those rocky portions abounding in caves, on the ledges of which it breeds. It is a smaller and more local species than the last, and is never found breeding inland and rarely in colonies. ”

“ The saddle somehow reminded him of Shag Bunce, but the pony was a stranger to him; neither could he make out the letter of the brand in the pale moonlight. However, it might be a new animal, just purchased and not yet branded—or there might be a thousand explanations. The thought of Shag Bunce reminded him of the handsome private car he had seen upon the track that morning. But even if a party had gone out to ride how would one of them get separated? Surely no lady would venture over the desert alone, not a stranger at any rate. ”

“ I'se runnin'!” And Shag's hands fairly trembled with eagerness, while the colonel, opening a little green book, read:
“Of recreation there is none So free as fishing is alone; All other pastimes do no less Than mind and body both possess; My hand alone my work can do, So I can fish and study too!” ”

“ 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 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 ”

“ The female shag seems to think so too, for all that she does—that is to say, all that I have then seen her do—is to stand and look about, conduct which, as it is uninteresting, we may perhaps assume to be correct. But when the antics begin, as one may say, from the second figure, the male not rising from his recumbent position (a quite usual one) on the rock to make the first display, the bird towards whom his attentions are directed will often be standing behind him, and it then appears as if he had brought back his head in order to gaze up at her con expressione. ”

“ The shag, as far as I know, has nothing particular to fear, either by sea or shore. His only enemy is man, who is not confined to either, but is as brutal and ignorant on the one as the other. But in avoiding danger the instinct of any animal would probably be to leave the place to which it was less accustomed, and run to that with which it was familiar—and this we constantly see. Thus a land-bird that was beginning to take to the water would leave it for the land on any alarm, whilst a water-bird under similar circumstances would make for the water. ”

“ So science leagues itself with death, and the museums roar, one against another, "Kill!"
A young shag, now, to take these unpleasant reflections out of my mind, is being fed by one of the parents on a great slab of rock, which has no nest « 149 » upon it that I can see. Now this young bird is nearly, if not quite, as large as the grown one, and only to be distinguished from it by its unadorned brown plumage and the paleness of the skin where naked. There is no doubt at all, I think, that it must long have been swimming, since I have seen smaller and younger-looking birds doing so. ”

“ Its favourite nesting haunts are the caves and fissures in the cliffs, but where such are wanting, or not available, the bird will content itself with a cranny amongst the rocks of a low island. If plenty of accommodation exists many pairs of Shags will nest in company; where suitable sites are scarce the birds breed in scattered pairs along the coast. It is more than probable that the Shag pairs for life: it returns season by season to its old nesting-place. The nest of this species is either wedged into some crevice of the sides or roof, or made upon a ledge in a cave ”

“ The name *Shag, given in both Manx dictionaries, applies to both species; and both give also Fannag-varrey=Seacrow. Feeagh-marrey=Sea-raven appears in Lev. xi. 17. Arrag vooar or Arrag'ooar means P. carbo, perhaps only the young white-breasted birds. Cf. I. Siagaidh, Siogaidh; Sc. Gael. Orag; I. Odharog, "a young Cormorant." Various isolated crags round our coast are well known as "Shag Rock," "apricis statio gratissima mergis." ”

“ The female weighs over three pounds; the upper part of her body is dark, not so densely glossed as in the male; but the margin of the feathers of the scapulars and wing coverts is black, the under part dusky, with a mixture of grey.
Such is Colonel Montagu's description of a pair shot from the nest, but they vary in plumage and colour. In habit the Shag is strictly a salt-water bird, never visiting fresh water, breeding on our rocky coasts, where it builds a nest of stick and sea-weed. ”

“ Heard him tell the Head that his first name is 'Fire-Flint,' and his last name is 'Larocque.' Seemed to kind of take the Head where he is weakest.
"'If you don't like it,' says the Indian, with a dead-quiet, plumb-straight look at the Head, 'you may call me what the people up along the Red River call me; I'm known there as the Shagganappi—Shag, if you want to cut off part of the word. The other boys may call me Shag if they want to.' Say, fellows, I liked him right there and then. He may chum up with me all he likes, for all his silk socks and shirts." ”

“ They ordered horses an' a outfit, and Shag Bunce is goin' with 'em. He got a letter 'bout a week ago tellin' what they wanted of him. Yes, I knowed all about it. He brung the letter to me to cipher out fer him. You know Shag ain't no great at readin' ef he is the best judge of a mine anywheres about."
Thus the station agent explained in low thrilling tones; and even the Indians watched and grunted their interest.
At eleven o'clock the horses arrived, four [12] besides Shag's, and the rest of the outfit. The onlookers regarded Shag with the mournful interest due to the undertaker at a funeral. ”

“ Shags are amongst the earliest breeders, and they are worth watching during their love-making, rubbing their snaky heads together and performing strange, ungainly antics. They make rough, untidy nests, with three or four eggs, on many of the uninhabited islands. If you go near them when they are sitting on their eggs, they will hiss at you like geese.
A SHAG PARLIAMENT
In spring tens of thousands of visitors arrive in flocks, for the breeding-season—puffins, Manx shearwaters, guillemots, razor-bills, terns, storm-petrels, and many non-resident gulls. ”

“ As for Shag, who had been bounding along beside his mistress’s horse, he at once lowered his tail, and came quietly to heel in the rear of her steed, no doubt noticing the like action on the part of the Indian hounds.
“Baguales,” murmured the Indians half audibly as they rode slowly forward to join the Queen; yet look as hard as ever they could, our young friends could make out no sign of the wild horses, about which the Indians appeared so confident. ”

“ We found three eggs in a nest on St. Tudwal's, and a bend in the cliffs near Trwyn Cilan enabled me to drive a bird off her nest, also containing three eggs, which she was loth to leave on account, probably, of the Jackdaws; but with these exceptions I only saw two eggs in any nest in the third week in May. On the west side of Pen Cilan rows of Shags sat on some long ledges, overhung with rock, in the lower part of the cliff. Cormorants, the adults easily distinguished a long way off by the white thigh patch, also resort to the cliffs; but the Shag is much the commoner species. ”

“ It is a most business-like bird, and goes steadily about its daily work, taking very little notice of outside interruptions. It is more prettily marked than the northern shag, having a black back and white belly. The back of the head is black, and carries a tuft of black feathers. ”

“ It's the big Herd down in the good feeding they're after, I suppose."
"Yes," answered A'tim; "to-morrow the whole Blood tribe, and Camous the Paleface, who is but a squaw man, [Pg 15] living in their lodges, will make the Run."
"I wish I could stampede the Buffalo to save them," sighed Shag; "but my sides are sore from the insulting prods of the Spike Horns. Not a Bull in the whole Herd, from Smooth Horns, who are wise, down to Spike Horns, who are fools because of their youth, but thinks it fair sport to drive at me if I go near. Surely I am an Outcast—which seems to me a strange thing. ”

“ Young shags are, at first, naked and black—also blind, as I was able to detect through the glasses. Afterwards the body becomes covered with a dusky grey down, and then every day they struggle more and more into the likeness of their parents. ”

“ I have seen excursionists engage in the hopeless task of trying to "shoo" a solemn conclave of cormorants away by shouting, gesticulating, and throwing stones, but those wise birds, better able to judge distances in their native air than any holiday-making townsfolk, do not so much as deign to take notice of the disturbers, and witness stones falling a quarter of a mile or so short with all the contempt such marksmen deserve.
The shag is no doubt equally wise, but his is an even more contemplative and much less active [274] wisdom than that of the cormorant. ”

“ The shags do not seem to wait for the true morning—the one over to the east. Many of them have flown out to sea like shadows, or great, uncouth bats, yet I hardly think they can have seen me in the greyness after I had sat down. I am not sure whether they came from the cavern itself or only from about its frowning portals. Wondrous noises the sea is making now, as, with the heaves of a dead calm, even—heaves that in their very quietude suggest a terrible reserve of power—it laps into and out of this awesome cavern—moans, rumblings, sullen sounds that want and seem to crave a name. ”

“ The shaggy hides, the protuberant abdomens, the hideous features of these strange creatures, whose forms so nearly resemble man, made up a picture like a vision in a morbid dream. In destroying a tree, they first grasped the base of the stem with one of their feet, and then with their powerful arms pulled it down, a matter of not much difficulty with so loosely-formed a stem as that of the plantain. ”

“ The Lord High Mayor eyed Shaggy narrowly. "Well," he said, "if you insist on leaving Hightown, you could walk to the boundary there, where gravity begins again, step over and fall very quickly to the earth. That is the fastest way I can think of leaving Hightown, but I wouldn't recommend it."
"No, no," the Shaggy Man assured him. "We have no desire to fall to the earth." Shaggy looked below him with a shudder. "We would be in no shape to continue our travels if we did that." ”

“ There was an apple-tree beside the house, and some apples had fallen to the ground. The shaggy man thought they would taste better than the oat-straw, so he walked over to get some. A little black dog with bright brown eyes dashed out of the farm-house and ran madly toward the shaggy man, who had already picked up three apples and put them in one of the big wide pockets of his shaggy coat. The little dog barked and made a dive for the shaggy man's leg; but he grabbed the dog by the neck and put it in his big pocket along with the apples. ”