130 Transactions. — Zoology. 



south of New Zealand, separating it from Phalacrocorax 

 colensoi, and saying, " This species is distinguished at once by 

 the approximation of the dark plumage of the head beneath 

 the throat, leaving a comparatively narrow white stripe 

 between them." He also makes the possession of both the 

 white alar bar and the white dorsal spot characteristic of his 

 new species. 



In my opinion we have a good deal more to learn about 

 the Shags inhabiting New Zealand and the adjacent islands ; 

 and I think Mr. Forbes was somewhat rash in characterizing 

 this as a new species without further investigation. 



The type of my Phalacrocorax colensoi was from the 

 Auckland Islands, but (like all the other specimens collected 

 there by Mr. Burton at a wrong season of the year) it was in 

 old and faded plumage, with dingy colours. Quite recently, 

 however, I have had an opportunity of examining a large 

 number of skins in good plumage, collected by Mr. Henry Travers 

 at the Auckland Islands and on Campbell Island during the 

 last cruise of the Government gunboat " Hinemoa." The 

 examination of this collection has satisfied me that Mr. Forbes's 

 " characters " are of very little value. The form and width of 

 the white stripe down the foreneck, the presence or absence of 

 the alar bar, and the dorsal patch of white, are inconstant 

 features, due apparently to age or season. It will probably be 

 found, when we become better acquainted with the species, 

 that the bird is carunculated at one season of the year and not 

 at another, for all the specimens brought by Mr. Travers 

 (killed in May) are without caruncles on the face. They include 

 adult birds of both sexes, but presenting very different phases 

 of plumage. In three of them there is a slight coronal crest, 

 the feathers being acuminate, and produced beyond the ordi- 

 nary plumage of the head. In some the alar bar is very con- 

 spicuous, occupying the whole of the median wing-coverts, in 

 others it is broken and irregular ; in one of the birds it is 

 wbolly absent, whilst in another the only indications of it are 

 a few scattered white feathers among the dark wing-coverts. 

 Of the whole series only one presents the white dorsal spot. 

 The white throat-stripe is very uncertain in character : in 

 some of the specimens it widens gradually from the chin to 

 the breast, whilst in one of them it is narrow and of even width 

 in its whole extent ; in some it is constricted in the middle ; 

 and in one of them the dark plumage of the sides of the neck 

 almost meets above the breast, the white stripe being inter- 

 rupted and broken. Out of the whole lot only one gives the 

 wing -measurement of my type — namely, lOoin. In all 

 the others the wing, from the flexure, measures llin. It 

 will be seen therefore that, even in this respect, the species 

 is variable. The fact is that this Shag, like many others, 



