h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Shags - A2795934
Author: Montague Trout - U188966

No point having Great Tits if you're not going to have a Shag is there?

About time some did this much overlooked bird.

The common cormorant, or shag,
Lays its eggs in a paper bag.
The reason you will see - no doubt
-It is to keep the water out!
But what these unobservant birds
Have not noticed is that herds
Of bears may come, with buns,
And steal the bags to hold their crumbs!

Can't remember who wrote it, but learnt this as a child - and still is about the only complete poem I can quote!

Don't like the etc. in nests - perhaps just 'seaweed and bracken'

... and the word is 'can leave the nest almost immediately (called nidifugous in ornithological textbooks)' which I avoided using in the Great Bastard - sorry - Bustard.

I suppose someone'll have to do The Great Booby next!!!

Watermusic

Thanks for the constructive commentary. I take this as complimentary of my ability in the Shag department.

The famous Liver Birds, while mythical, are closely related to the Shag. You can see loads of Shags on the Mersey Estuary.

Nerys Hughes?

A neglected subject, well done.

Nitpicks: some capitalization inconsistency when referring to shags (and Shags).

a base of seaweed abd bracken> and

After the juveniles fledge typically at about 53 days after hatching,> I'd stick in a comma after fledge (but I might be wrong).

Bet this ends up being one of the most-read entries in PR.

Mol

'Can't remember who wrote it'

Christopher Isherwood. He was well into shags, female and male...

Hi again,
(Thanks Felonious)

I think you should footnote altricial and nidicolous - as I had to look them up. They seem to be specific ornithological words and actually mean the same thing.

The definitions I found are
Altricial - Hatched with eyes closed, with little or no down, incapable of departing from the nest, and fed by the parents.
Nidicolous
A nidicolous (or altricial) nestling is naked, blind and helpless after it hatches.

and of course the comment I made above does NOT apply
{A nidifugous (or precocial) nestling is down covered and active shortly after hatching and can leave the nest if necessary.}

Watermusic

Good everyone. I am noting comments and updating periodically, as instructed.

Mythically, the Liver Birds flap their wings when no shags walk under them.

Maybe I should add some 'famous shags' type anecdotes. Here's another...

http://www.smallfilms.co.uk/noggin/graculus.htm

Just so I remember, there appear to be a number of southern ocean shags, including the spledidly named King Shag.

You could see a Little Shag in New Zealand

**runs off to start the entry on boobies before MT beats him to it **

B

This will go well with Master B's Great Tits.

I'm not sure of the value of your technical jargon; it makes the text impenetrable. I feel you would be better explaining such little-known terms as nidiculous.

Some typos and minor changes:

I don't think you need to capitalise the s of shag everywhere it occurs.

barring yellow patches --> except for yellow patches (the word 'barring' might be misinterpreted as meaning 'in bars or stripes')

on almost entirely on --> almost entirely on
crustacea --> crustaceans
south to Iberian --> south to the Iberian
They are invariably sited on --> They are almost invariably sited on
with three, the average --> with three the average

Quite tragically I assumed that this was about birds, before reading the entry. And being a liberated child of the 80/90s I only ever refer to feathered creatures as birds.

Just a few nit picks.

(sorry no <shag&gt I was wondering what the literal transilation of the Latin was. Just curious, don't have to add it if you don't think that it would add anything to the entry..

I also wondering what inter alia means.. I know it's latin.

Is the shag endangered in this country? If not where are the largest breeding colonies of them.

I still found some of the technical terms a little impenatrable. What does altricial mean?

I just think perhaps the tone needs changing slightly to make it a bit more active, at the moment it's quite technical.

Actually, thinking along Z's lines, I would put in for the title of this entry to be changed. The wording of the title could equally refer to type of tobacco, long-thread carpets or short-lived dance crazes of the 1960s. And that's without even thinking of the more obvious connotations.

B

'No point having Great Tits if you're not going to have a Shag is there?'

Reminds me of a coffee table conversation at school, where wewere discussing the birds that frequent our gardens, so obviously blackbirds, starlings, s and so one were mentioned. Then someone mentioned the blues that visited their birdtable, at which point the Deputy Head (a lady, very reminisent of the DH in the TV comedy 'Please Sir') pipes up and says, 'I've got Great s....'. She realised what she was about to say but was beyond the point of no return.

Can I suggest a visit to B3TA's question of the week with that story?

B