AND OTHER BIRDS 167 



fully. I have, moreover, watched a youngster, 

 evidently considered by his parents to be 

 out of tutelage, and too old to be thus 

 clamouring for food, given very distinctly to 

 understand that such conduct at his age would 

 not be permitted. The youngster, too, quite 

 comprehended the position, and presently 

 desisted. Whilst thus pestered, there was in the 

 old bird's aspect something very different from 

 the judicial air of impersonal observation, 

 assumed, when at an earlier period, the chick had 

 been forced to thrash round in circles. No doubt 

 this particular youngster had only been "trying 

 it on." when he should have been obtaining his 

 own food. 



Each season I am amazed anew at the essential 

 resemblance to man in birds; and nothing is 

 more engrossing than to watch a little scene of 

 this sort, The attempt at imposition, the air of 

 menace intuitively perceived by the mendicant, 

 the growing comprehension that the trick won't 

 work and its cessation. 



The Pied Shag is larger by far than either of 

 the other species ; and the nests of this breed are 

 in proportion conspicuous. They appear almost 

 always to be based on the older structures of 

 previous years and season by season to be merely 

 repaired. The new material added and put in 

 place, is gathered from the kamahi and iron- 

 woods that support the nest. The leaves and 

 branchlet tips used for their lining are taken 

 from the same trees. The ancient bases of some 

 of the nests are from a foot to five feet deep. One 

 of the latter depth a sort of funeral pyre 

 jammed securely between the upright dead 

 terminal forks of an ironwood limb, supported a 



