100 Transactions. — Zoology. 



Phalacrocorax. — Shag (Kawau). 



There are thirteen species in New Zealand, and all very 

 destructive to fish, on which they prey, especially Phalacroeorax 

 novce-hollandice (Black Shag), P. melanoleucus (Frilled Shag), 

 P. brevirostris (White-throated Shag), P. varius (Pied Shag), and 

 P. punctatus (Spotted Shag), which I have often found in the 

 inland bays, rivers, and lakes. They are expert divers, and very 

 few fish escape thern. On my visit at Mr. Buckland's station at 

 Kaipara, in 1885, on which there are some very pretty fresh- 

 water lakes of considerable size, I inquired of Mr. Drew, the 

 manager, if they contained any fish. He told me they had put 

 carp in, but never could see any. On the banks of one of these 

 lakes is a breeding-place of P. varius. Mr. Drew kindly rowed 

 us across to it, and we shot a number of shags. Mr. W. Phillipps 

 sent his dog after a wounded one, but biting him he let it go ; 

 the shag then dived, and took him by the front paw, and would 

 have drowned him had we not come to his assistance. On 

 skinning and dissecting, I found numbers of carp in these birds : 

 one measured ten inches. In lakes or rivers where salmon, 

 trout, or carp are introduced some trees or branches should be 

 put into quiet water, to form a shelter and protect the fish from 

 the shags. 



Eudyptes. — Penguin. 



There are nine species in New Zealand, which all prey on 

 fi?h and Crustacea, but the injury they do is not much felt, as 

 they avoid inhabited places, and are mostly to be found on the 

 outlying islets and rocks. The sea-birds on the New Zealand 

 coast are more useful than destructive. The Natives in former 

 times subsisted mostly on certain species, and made large expe- 

 ditions to the islands where these birds breed, taking the young 

 and eggs of the numerous species of Procellarida (Petrel 

 family — thirty-one in New Zealand) ; their feathers and down 

 are also useful. 



Larid^ . — Seagulls. 



There are five species in New Zealand ; most of them are 

 useful in picking up the drift along the shore. It can be for- 

 given the Larus dominicanus if she spys now and then an egg of 

 other birds and eats it. The usefulness of these birds should 

 be known to agriculturists, as Larus bulleri, and L. scopulinus 

 (Mackerel-gull) follow the plough from morning till night, picking 

 up all vermin, and also search in the meadows with the same 

 object. When dissecting, I fouud as many as forty different 

 kinds of grubs, worms, etc., in one crop. This pretty little 

 gull should be protected everywhere. I shall now turn to the 

 birds which are very useful to the country besides those already 

 mentioned above ; as partially so, they ought to be protected, 



