BuLLER. — On the Ornithology of Neio Zealand. 197 



the Birds of Australia," he adopted Bonaparte's name as 

 above. The species was, if I remember aright, inckided in 

 Mr. G. R. Gray's "List of New Zealand Birds," of 1862, 

 on the authority of specimens said to have come from 

 New Zealand, but, not having been met with again, it has 

 dropped out of our list as of doubtful origin, the last reference 

 to it being in Captain Hutton's Manual of 1872, with this 

 note : "I have seen no specimens." It is satisfactory, there- 

 fore, to be able to reinstate it on indubitable evidence. Ac- 

 companying the specimen, I had a letter from Mr. h.. T. 

 Pycroft, from which I extract tlie following : — 



"I am sending you by parcels post a skin of a small 

 Black Shag which was shot at the mouth of the Waitangi 

 Eiver in July last. I have sent the Auckland Museum two 

 skins similar to the one which I am sending to you. Mr. 

 Cheeseman favours the idea that this bird is a distinct species 

 from the White-throated Shag (Phalacrocorax brevirostris). 

 From the information which I have collected myself I should 

 think it was a distinct bird; but I should feel satisfied if you 

 would kindly take the trouble to examine the skin and tell 

 me if it is so or not. I cannot, unfortunately, tell you if it 

 was a male or female. Seven of these birds were shot at 

 one shot at Waitangi, and there were fully one hundred of 

 them in a flock. They were all black, and I can give you 

 indisputable evidence to that effect. Some would remain on 

 the surface while the remainder were fishing. It is a shy 

 bird, and I have always had trouble to get within range. 

 However, that time we surprised them, and were within 

 about thirty yards of them. During the same day, at the 

 Haumai Creek, I shot a White-throated Shag. This bird, 

 compared with the other varieties here, is rare. The small 

 Black Shag appears in numbers in the winter, but I have not 

 seen it later than September. I know nothing about their 

 breeding-places or habits. It seems strange to me that, if it 

 is a variety of P. brevirostris, 1 have never seen any of them 

 with any sign of white. I should think that if it was a 

 variety I should have seen White-throated Shags amongst 

 them." 



Mr. Gould writes that this Shag "is found in most of the 

 southern parts of the Australian Continent, and appears to 

 affect the rivers and lagoons of the interior rather than the 

 sea-coast; at least, such was the result of my observations. I 

 found it nowhere more abundant than on the Elvers Mokai, 

 Peel, and Namoi. Its habits did not appear to differ from 

 those of the other members of the family ; it was usually 

 seen perched on the branches of the eucalypti overhanging the 

 water, and on the spars and snags of the fallen trees which 

 protruded above its surrface, in small companies of from 



