^A Stead, The Black Cormorant in New Zealand. [isf'oct 



fished there. At the same time there are unquestionably fewer 

 Shags. In the shallows at the north-east corner of the lake, 

 where I was shooting for some seasons, there were noticeably 

 fewer eels than round the mouth of the Selwyn, and this I 

 attribute largely to the presence of a flock of about 50 Shags 

 which fished there. 



In a colony of Shags on the Rakaia River, the old birds of 

 which I several times watched fishing during their breeding 

 season, I only saw two trout caught out of a total catch of about 

 12 fish, the remainder being eels. This was readily to be 

 observed, as a Shag, being unable to swallow its prey under the 

 water, has to bring it first to the surface. 



And now I come to the actual taking of trout by Shags. As 

 I have already said, in districts where there are eels the number 

 of trout taken is smaller than is usually imagined ; and there are 

 very few streams in the South Island where eels are not plentiful. 

 I remember well late in April, 1901, the Waimakariri being 

 perfectly clear, I saw numbers of eels of all sizes working their 

 way up stream under both White's bridge and the bridge over 

 the cutting. In October, 1903, the Rakaia was crystal clear, and 

 I saw the same thing at the railway bridge. At the same time 

 there are, I believe, many streams in the North Island which are 

 almost if not entirely devoid of eels. Yet even there I claim 

 that the Shag is not an unmitigated evil. 



Most persons will, I think, agree with me that the danger with 

 many of our streams and rivers is not of their depletion of trout 

 but of overstocking. Most of us also are well aware of the 

 degeneration that takes place in any race that has no natural 

 enemies — where, that is to say, there is no agent that will bring 

 about the survival of the fittest. In the case of trout an eel can 

 be of little use as such an agent, since by eating the ova it destroys 

 the trout before the latter has had an opportunity of showing its 

 fitness or otherwise. A Shag, on the other hand, taking trout of 

 anything from 4 to 5 inches long, is almost certain to get 

 the weaker members of a shoal of trout first, the stronger 

 escaping by their superior agility and swimming powers, I 

 suppose that of the trout in the Avon 10 per cent, are miserable, 

 long, thin kelts, weighing anything up to a pound and a half I 

 think you would have great difficulty in finding any such per- 

 centage in a stream where there are Shags fishing, and it is my 

 opinion that a few Shags fishing in the Avon would soon reduce this 

 percentage there. The Upper Selwyn is enormously overstocked, 

 considering the size of the stream and the amount of the food 

 supply. The result is that the average size of the fish is nothing 

 like what it was years ago, nor are they in such good condition. 

 All sporting anglers would rather catch one fish of 3 lbs. than 

 three of i lb. each, and even from a culinary point of view the 

 former has the advantage over the latter of a greater weight of 



