40 Sir W. L. Bullei' on the Aucklmul-Island Shag. 



me that Mr, Forbes's " characters " are of very little value. 

 The form and width of the white stripe down the fore neck, 

 the presence or absence of the alar bar and of 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 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 present- 

 ing very different phases of plumage. In three of them 

 there is a slight coronal crest, the feathers being acuminate 

 and produced beyond the ordinary plumage of the head ; in 

 some the alar bar is very conspicuous, occupying the whole 

 of the median wing-coverts, in others it is broken and 

 irregular ; in one of the birds it is wholly 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 speci- 

 mens it widens gradually from the chin to the throat, 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 interrupted 

 and broken. Out of the whole lot only one gives the wing- 

 measurement of my type, namely, 10'5 inches. In all the 

 others the wing, from the flexure, measures 11 inches. It 

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

 is variable. 



Tlie fact is that this Shag, like many others in all parts 

 of the world, varies with age and season, and the only course, 

 so far as I can see, is to make the characters of Phalacro- 

 corax colensoi somewhat wider. 



