3094 THE ZooLoGist—J UNE, 1872. 
Its breeding-station sometimes is shared by others of the species, 
whose nests are built in pretty close proximity; sticks, probably 
decayed leaves of Phormium, and coarse grasses, furnish the 
materials of these structures, which yield, from the accumulated filth, 
a powerful and disagreeable odour. The eggs, at most four in 
number, are long ovoidconical in shape; they are greenish white, 
covered with chalky incrustations; they measure two inches 
five lines in length, and one inch six lines in breadth. The 
young birds remain in the nest till they have attained a considerable 
size. 
In the neighbourhood of Christchurch, not very far from the 
sea, is, or rather was, a swamp of considerable extent, which 
was selected some years since as a breeding-station by certain 
species of our numerous family of the Graculide. Numbers 
of birds were attracted to the spot; a visit to this nursery 
ground showed them in multitudes, arriving, departing, or stationed 
in quaint attitudes about the huge tufty heads of the pendant-leaved 
Carex. It was noticeable that the tops of the Maori-heads were 
almost invariably occupied by the large coarsely-built homes 
of G. carbo: beneath, against the dark tufted root-stems, the less 
ambitious little river shags reared their offspring. Unsavoury 
odours, of a most penetrating kind, pervaded this colony and its 
neighbourhood, from the great accumulation of slimy exuvie; one 
could conceive that it was possible for the sea-washed rock to be 
changed into the ghano island—it would be simply a sum in 
multiplication worked out by Time. Without staying to moralize 
on the fact that the same great Chemist transmuted the poison 
stench of one age into a commercial item which has afforded 
employment to thousands of human beings in another, we may 
mention that our little colony was not without its value, outside of 
its purpose for bird incubation. 
As the explorer somewhat carefully picked his way, his advancing 
footsteps shaking the trembling morass, eels of the largest size, 
disturbed, were observed threading the watery mazes of the quaking 
bog, their bulk and condition proofs that the bird colony furnished 
them with abundance of fattening food. The following year this 
locality was abandoned by the shags, who established themselves 
on a swamp by the Purakanui; this likewise was deserted at the 
next breeding season. Why? If this change of quarters was 
rendered necessary by the presence of vermin or filth, how is the 
OO a 
