Butrer.—On the Ornithology of New Zealand. 335 
Diomedea cauta. 
Captain Hutton writes me that he has added this fme Albatros 
to the New Zealand list, a specimen having been obtained at Blue- 
skin Bay, in Otago. In 1871, I saw a beautiful specimen on board 
of a man-of-war in Wellington Harbour, but I found that it had been 
captured too far from the shores of New Zealand to warrant my includ- 
ing the species in my book. 
Mr. Gould named it the Shy Albatros, in allusion to its cautious habits, 
for it seldom approached the ship sufficiently near for a successful shot. 
He states that it is “rapid and vigorous on the wing, and takes immense 
sweeps over the surface of the ocean." The stomachs of those he obtained 
in Recherche Bay (Tasmania), where they were attracted by the floating fat 
and other refuse from the whaling-station, contained blubber, the remains 
of large fish, barnacles, and other crustaceans. 
The New Zealand Avifauna now embraces six recognized species of 
Albatros, viz.—Diomedea exulans, D. melanophrys, D. chlororhyncha, D. 
culminata, D. fuliginosa, and D. cauta. 
Phalacrocorax carunculatus. 
Some specimens of this fine species have lately been brought from 
Queen Charlotte Sound, and the skins manufactured into ladies’ muffs by 
Mr. Liardet, of Wellington. 
The bird which I exhibited at one of our former meetings, and which I 
proposed to distinguish as Phalacrocorax finschii, if it should prove to be new 
is, I rather suspect, only a seasonal state of this species. In Dr. Kidder’s 
work* there is the following significant mention of this Shag :—“ Only . 
a single adult skin of this Cormorant was preserved and brought 
home, a female in nuptial plumage. There is no better reason, I am 
afraid, for this omission, than the fact, that the birds were exceedingly 
plentiful, and the preparation of the skins a very tedious job, so that it 
was put off from day to day for rarer specimens, until, in the haste of an 
unexpectedly hurried departure, it was omitted altogether. From memory, 
I can only say that the young birds were of much more sober plumage than 
the females, destitute of the crest and brilliant blue eyelid, and generally 
rather smaller.. All had white breasts and bellies; but there were many 
minor variations in plumage, which I suppose went to indicate differences 
in age." I do not absolutely sink the new species, because, in Mr. Travers’ 
specimens, the bill is appreciably larger and more robust than in ordinary 
examples of P. carunculatus; but it will be necessary to obtain further 
specimens for examination and comparison before any satisfactory con- 
clusion can be arrived at. 
* “ Contributions to the Natural History of Kerguelen Island,” Bulletin of the U.S. 
National Museum, 1875, 
