170 MUTTON BIRDS 



Often when watching these quaint birds T have 

 thought of the ' ' Theresa Ward, ' ' and grieved to 

 think that man "who loved, who suffered count- 

 less ills, who battled for the true, the just," that 

 man with all his noble attributes can never hope 

 to vomit with the happiness and ease of a 

 common Shag.* 



It is curious to watch a bird still high in the 

 air, about to alight and preparing for descent 

 with open legs straddled, and webbed feet fully 

 spread, and birds when passing above the 

 shaggery are scrupulously careful never to foul 

 the community beneath. 



My dealings with the Frilled Shag were 

 unfortunate. The nest selected for particular 

 observation was excellently placed and the birds, 

 though not so quiet as those of the Pied breed, 

 were by no means shy. It was the too sudden 

 and too long-continued erection of the tree plat- 

 form, that scared the owners of this nest and 

 made them desert. In extenuation of this im- 

 petuosity, I may say that my hands were in 

 some degree forced by the proximity of a small 

 saw-mill and the possibility of a raid on the 

 birds. Anything, therefore, seen of this breed 

 was noted from a distance of some yards. The 

 Frilled Shag possesses no frill visible to the field 

 naturalist. It is a very much smaller bird than 

 its Pied cousin. The feathers are less tightly 

 compressed. It can erect a short black crest just 

 above the beak, parallel to its head, not traverse, 

 as is the case in the Stewart Island breed. Out 



*The Theresa Ward runs (weather permitting) between 

 the Bluff and Half Moon Bay. Although an excellent boat 

 for the weather sometimes encountered in Foveaux Strait, her powers 

 of pitch and toss cannot be gainsaid, and in pitiless publicity 

 deplorable scenes are enacted on her decks. 



