300 A VES ORDER PELECANIFORMES. 



our Common Cormorant has white filamentous plumes distributed over the 

 head and neck, as well as an ornamental white patch just above the thighs. 



The way in which Cormorants and Shags feed 

 their young is very curious, and is well described 

 by Sir Walter Buller. Writing of the Pied Shag 

 of New Zealand (P. varius), he says : 



" We found the Shags in great force, and it 

 was most interesting to watch the operations of 

 both old and young birds. There were 80 or 

 100 nests, many of which were vacant owing to 

 the lateness of our visit, the breeding having 

 commenced in October. The nests are large, 

 round structures, composed, as already men- 

 tioned, of dry sticks aud twigs and other loose 

 materials, bound together by means of a peculiar 

 kind of Kelp, for which the Shags may be 

 observed diving in the sea, sometimes in four 

 fathoms of water. They have a somewhat com- 



.- P^ appearance, and are usually placed in a 



(Phalacrocorax carbu). thick fork among the branches or between 



two limbs of a tree lying close together. In 

 each of those still tenanted there were two fully-fledged young birds, and 

 these youthful Shags kept up a constant * squirling ' noise, accompanied by a 

 perpetual swaying of the head from side to side in an impatient sort of way. 

 The old bird comes up from the sea with her gullet full of small fish, and 

 takes up her station on a branch adjoining to or overlooking the nest. The 

 young birds, after craning their necks almost to dislocation, quit their nest 

 and mount up alongside the parent, when the peculiar feeding operation 

 commences. The mother bends down her head in a loving way, opens wide 

 her mandibles, and the young Shag, with an impatient guttural note, thrusts 

 his head right down the parental throat and draws forth from the pouch, 

 after much fumbling about, the first instalment of his dinner. No sooner 

 has he swallowed this than he begins to coax for more, caressing the mother's 

 throat and neck with his bill in a very amusing fashion. The old bird waits 

 till she has recovered the discomfort of the last feed, then opens her mouth 

 again, and the action is repeated, first by one young Shag^ then by the other. 

 When the pouch is emptied, the mother spreads her ample wings and goes 

 off for a fresh supply of auas, whilst her offspring shuffle themselves back 

 again into their nests to await her return. But this feeding process and the 

 squirling cries which hera.ld it are going on at the same time all over the 

 camp, and as a consequence there is a perfect din of voices. In the midst 

 of these may be heard deep guttural cries; but these are probably the 

 occasional scoldings of the old birds to repress the inconsiderate eagerness of 

 their young ones, for during the operation of feeding there is a good deal 

 of apparent squabbling among the young fraternity for the first attention, 

 accompanied by a vigorous fluttering and flapping of the wings. In one of 

 the nests, where the young birds were not sufficiently advanced to leave it, 

 I observed that the occupants, during the intervals when their parents were 

 absent, kept up an incessant flapping of their wings and swaying of their 

 long necks, first to one side, then to the other, with a never-ceasing cry as if 

 in great bodily distress. " 



Although at first sight bearing considerable resemblance to the Cormorants, 



