PELICANS. 191 



doubt of the true position of any of the members he might come across, and conse- 

 quently the accompanying figure, although representing a now probably extinct 

 species, will serve as well for illustrating the structure of the existing birds. These, 

 which are distributed all over the globe, except the very Arctic regions, are generally 

 of a blackish color, with more or less bronzy reflections, and the naked face usually 

 brightly colored, but some species, especially from the Australian seas, have the whole 

 under surface white. New Zealand is especially rich in shags, as these birds are also 

 called, having not less than thirteen species, amongst these the curiously colored 

 spotted shag (Phalacrocorax punctatus) peculiar to that colony; it is beautifully 

 brownish ash above, each feather with a velvety black spot at the end ; the under side 

 is leaden gray ; head and neck blackish, with a broad white band along the sides ; the 

 legs are flesh-colored; the eyes, like those of most cormorants, green. 



The cormorants are very sociable, and are usually found in great flocks all the year 

 round. Another feature of their character is their inquisitiveness. I well remember 

 that afternoon when we left Copper Island, steering for the island where the celebrated 

 navigator, Bering, died after having been shipwrecked. I stood with Captain Sand- 

 mann on the deck when we were doubling the northwest cape of the former island. 

 Flock after flock of violet-green shags (P. pelagicus) came up to the steamer, veered 

 round, then passed over the vessel behind the smokestack, bending and stretching 

 their long necks in the utmost curiosity, and, as if they had not seen all they wanted, 

 some of them would return a second time. This lasted as long as we could see the 

 cape. As I expressed my surprise at the enormous number, the captain replied that 

 the sight now was nothing against what it used to be. The shags were, until a few 

 years previous, so abundant at this point that they served as a conspicuous landmark, 

 which could be relied upon even in the thickest fog. But one winter the majority of 

 them died by an epidemic disease. The dead corpses covered the beaches all around 

 the islands, and the natives were much agitated by the prospect of these birds becom- 

 ing entirely extinct, since they form their main source of fresh meat during the long 

 winter. A few survived, however, and their number increased yearly. 



This incident recalls the fate that has befallen the spectacled, or Pallas's, cormo- 

 rant (P. perspicillatus), which, not more than thirty years ago, inhabited the neigh- 

 boring Bering Island, while now not a single locality is known where this large and 

 conspicuous shag may still survive ; in fact there are no authentic records of it having 

 ever been found outside of the island named. Two of the specimens in museums are 

 said to have come from Sitka, but they were not collected there, and are probably 

 from Bering Island. When, in 1882-'83, I visited that locality, I made all possible 

 efforts to obtain specimens, but all I could learn of it was that the last one was killed 

 about a generation ago. We have therefore taken pains to secure a most excellent 

 illustration of one of the rarest birds in collections. For, while we know of more than 

 seventy specimens of the great auk, and thirty of the Labrador duck, hardly more 

 than three spectacled cormorants exist in European museums, and none in this coun- 

 try. It would be well worth the while to make a thorough search all over the unin- 

 habited rocky islets of the Aleutian chain, as a few specimens, should they still exist 

 in some out-of-the-way place, would amply repay the trouble and expense. 



That the Chinese fishermen trained cormorants to catch fish for them was known 

 long ago. Subsequently the stories were more or less discredited. We shall there- 

 fore transcribe the following authentic account from the ' Special Catalogue of the 

 Ningpo Collection in the International Fishery-Exhibition at Berlin : ' 



