The Zoologist— June, 1874. 4019 



seem appropriate. It will be observed that the middle or cleansing 

 claw has a slight twist, and the comb differs from that on the middle 

 claw of Ardea in the case of the bird under notice ; the comb really 

 appears to be an addition carried out to the end of the claw, and is 

 doubtless an useful and well-used instrument; it is flexible to a 

 certain degree, and it would be more proper to describe it as a 

 scraping instrument than a comb ; in fact, it is the inside edge of 

 the middle claw produced into a scraper of about sixteen broad 

 curved flexible teeth. 



As far as we know, the spotted shag dives from the surface of 

 the water, not from the heights from which some of the anserine 

 order dash on their prey ; yet those who examine its structure will 

 note how admirably its anatomy is calculated to resist the strain or 

 pressure caused by its manner of obtaining food, the coracoid and 

 adjacent bones being not only in themselves of great strength, but 

 also firmly attached to the sternum. The eye, subject to so much 

 exposure, is defended, in addition to the armature of the lore, by a 

 circlet of round flexible plates. In life, at certain seasons, these 

 are of deep turquoise-blue, and add greatly to the appearance of 

 this bird. 



Perhaps no other species of our Pelicanidge is sooner or more 

 completely robbed by death of so much of its beauty and character 

 as P. punctatus; the evanescent colours of the membranes that 

 decorate as well as protect certain parts of its body, and the varying 

 tints of yellow, green, blue and purple defy the skill of the taxi- 

 dermist to preserve, and fade away into the semblance of a mass of 

 leathery wrinkles. 



The changes that take place in the plumage and in the coloration 

 of the membranous processes have led some persons to make two 

 species of the spottted shag; but a careful study of a large series 

 of specimens, procured at various periods of the year, and a 

 tolerably close observation of the bird in its favourite haunts, pre- 

 vents the writer from coinciding in this view. Having described 

 the young from the embryo through several of its changes of 

 appearance till it is of a size almost to quit the nest, we now give 

 some notes of its state of plumage at diff'erent ages and seasons. 



Young female killed in March. — Upper surface dull smoky 

 gray, the apex of the scapulars of dull greenish brown ; outer 

 wing- coverts dull brown, edged with pale fawn ; under surface 

 white; thighs dull brown; tail-coverts dark brown; tail dark 



