AND OTHER BIRDS 183 



bird photographed there was a very distinct 

 patch of chistered grey parasites. 



In many of the nests were eggs varying in 

 colonr, from fairly clean blue to chalky drab, and 

 differing in shape from ovoid to narrow 

 elongate. 



The eggs of the Stewart Island species are 

 much less blue than those of the Pied Shag. 

 Many nests contained new hatched chicks, per- 

 fectly naked, and jet as negroes. There were 

 other nests containing woollies in all stages of 

 growth. These, with two or three exceptions 

 only, were clothed in dark dowTi, the abnormal 

 birds showing down mottled and spotted on the 

 breast and belly. Finally there were the fully 

 fledged youngsters, in their bachelor quarters on 

 the rocks, and northernmost edges and ridges. 



The breeding season, therefore, of these 

 Stewart Island Shags must extend over several 

 months. 



About four o'clock in the afternoon the great 

 heat began to abate, and the black down of the 

 woolly nestlings, either did change, or seemed to 

 change, into a sunburnt brown. Then, too, a new 

 call began to arise from the rock. It was the 

 call for tribute from hundreds of hungry throats, 

 for now, from the estuaries and inlets, the 

 foi'aging birds were beginning to return laden 

 with their families' evening meal. 



Either the sexes of the Stewart Island species 

 of Shag vary much in colour, or else the breed 

 illustrates, in a very remarkable degree, the law 

 of dimorphism, the plumage of the one, being 

 black with green reflections, of the other 

 }^vve white on belly, neck, and throat, and with 

 o^"her marked differences. Watching the busy 



