PUALACllOCOliAX. 321 



tliick shafts of the tail-feathers render them ahnost perfectly rij;id, and acts for the Cormorant 

 like a flapper does for the Seal. These birds, when on a rock, sit holt uprif,'ht, and are partially 

 supported by the tail-feathers. A frecjuent attitude of repose is to sit motiijniess with outstretched 

 wings, but its element is the water, in which it seems to be as much at home almost as its 

 finny prey, on which it subsists. It dives with ease, reappearing after what appears to be an 

 unusual length of time, perhaps with a fish in its bill, some distance away. I have often 

 watched these birds from a bridge lishing in the stream below, and the body appears almost 

 submerged in the water, and not in the usual attitude of a Gull or Duck swimming on its surface. 

 During the non-breeding season the adult birds loose the long white feathers on the head and 

 neck', also the white patch of feathers on the f!ank-s. 



To give some idea of the amount of money expended in the destruction oi Cormorants, and 

 of the damage these birds do to the fisheries of New South Wales alone, 1 have collected the 

 following evidence from the Official Reports of the Fisheries Board of New South Wales. 

 It is gleaned chiefly from the reports of xarious Inspectors of I'isheries, officers who, by their 

 vocation, are able to speak with experience and authority on the sul)ject. In the Report for the 

 year ending 31st December, 1890," it is stated: —"Under the Fisheries Regulations the extinction 

 of Cormorants or Shags — birds very destructi\e to fish — was promoted by means of a reward 

 for each bird destroyed. These birds exist in \ast numbers on the iVIurray River, and the claim 

 upon the Department for their destruction has amounted during the past and present year to no 

 less a sum than /, 1501 17s. lod. The provision of the regulation has been but very partially 

 availed of, except on the Murray, and as the riddance of these voracious pests on that water 

 could not, under the circumstances stated, produce adeijuate beneficial result to the colony, we 

 considered it desirable to obtain its repeal, further expense in this direction will thus be saved. 

 The mode in which these birds were captured in the Murray District may be of interest. Taking 

 advantage of their habit to congregate in thousands, and to build their nests in swamps, the 

 blacks and half-castes, noting the locations, made raids on their nests at the proper time in the 

 breeding season, and captured all the fledglings, and as each nest contained on an average three 

 birds, it was not a difficult matter to collect a considerable number in a short time and with 

 comparatively little trouble." In the Official Report of the Fisheries for the year 1895 1 it is 

 stated: — "We have pleasure in acknowledging the receipt of some fine specimens of trout, which 

 had been caught in the waters of the colony, clearly proving that our endeavours in the past to 

 acclimatise this species of fish have been marked with success. A Cormorant, the natural 

 enemy of the trout, caught a splendid specimen at the I'rospect Dam, weighing 10 ounces and 

 measuring 11 inches in length." 



In the Report of the Board for the year ii)o6 of the " Fisheries of New South Wales," | Mr. 

 E. J. Paton, Inspector of Fisheries at Port Stephens, writes:- -" I have, by observation, tried to 

 form an estimate of the number of Cormorants in the Port Stephens waters, not including the 

 coastal waters outside the Heads. 1 estimate their number not to average less than three 

 thousand, perhaps four thousand, and the daily food of each Cormorant one dozen live fish, 

 weighing four pounds; three thousand Cormorants eating four pounds of fish each daily is over 

 five tons of fish daily— we will call it five tons for purposes of this illustration — or eighteen 

 hundred and twenty five tons yearly; placed in fish baskets, thirty baskets to the ton, it will 

 amount to fifty-four thousand seven hundred and fifty baskets, and if valued at ten shillings per 

 basket is worth /^2-j,i~S- When we consider that this pest, which lives exclusively on live fish, 

 and partial to our best edible kinds, are spread over all or nearly all the fish-carrying waters of 

 the State, we can faintly realise the amount of destruction they are responsible for. The systematic 

 destruction of this pest seems to me to be a matter the Federal authorities ought to deal with, 

 as I belie\'e these birds are found all o\er the fish-carrying waters of the Commonwealth. I 



* Rep. Comm. Fisheries N. S. VVafes, p. 3. t Ibid, p 5. J Ibid, p. 51. 

 81 



