Buller. — On Phalacrocorax colensoi and P. onslowu. 129 



the bodv, with a paler throat. There is likewise an absence 

 of black on the under tail-coverts. The adult plumage is pro- 

 bably assumed in the second year. As with the insects of 

 Madeira, mentioned by me in a former paper, so with this 

 Duck : long disuse has rendered the wings useless for pur- 

 poses of flight ; but, as if to compensate for this, the species 

 possesses the unusual faculty of being able to climb — an accom- 

 plishment which no doubt would be of far more advantage to 

 the bird in its rocky habitat, surrounded by the ocean, than 

 the power of flight. I made the discovery by the purest acci- 

 dent. Captain Fairchild, on the return of the " Hinemoa" 

 from her last visit to the Auckland Islands, presented me with 

 a live pair, which I at once placed on the Papaitonga Lake, 

 in the hope that they might breed there. I afterwards pur- 

 chased a pair from one of the crew, and, being desirous of 

 sending these to Europe, I placed them in a wire enclosure, 

 over 3ft. high, in a secluded part of my garden. I noticed 

 that they at once commenced to scale the perfectly upright 

 netting, falling back into the yard as they neared the top of 

 the fence. Never supposing that they would get over the 

 fence, I left them in the enclosure. In the morning the 

 male bird, being the more robust of the two, had made its 

 escape, and I had little hope of ever seeing it again, there 

 being much close covert in the garden. A few evenings after- 

 wards I found both birds again in the yard, the fugitive having 

 evidently climbed back into the enclosure for the purpose of 

 sharing his mate's food. In the morning he had disappeared 

 again. This continued for about ten days, the bird (which is 

 semi-nocturnal in its habits) skulking and hiding during the 

 day, and coming back in the evening to share the food. When 

 I was ready to ship the Ducks I had simply to visit the 

 enclosure after dusk, and then, catching them without diffi- 

 culty, they were cooped and despatched to London by the 

 B.M.S. " Tainui." 



Art. VII. — Notes on Phalacrocorax colensoi, of the Auckland 

 Islands, and on Phalacrocorax onslowi, of the Chatham 



Islands. 



By Sir Walter L. Buller, K.C.M.G., D.Sc, F.E.S. 



[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 5th September, 1804.] 



Mr. H. 0. Forbes, in his paper " On the Birds inhabiting 

 the Chatham Islands," which appeared in the Ibis for 

 October, 1893, describes, under the name of Phalacrocorax 

 rothschildi, a Shag found at the Chatham Islands and in the 

 9 



