936 Transactions,— Zoology. 
On the habits of P. carunculatus, as observed on Kerguelen Island, Dr. 
Kidder gives the following particulars :—* They do not differ materially in 
habits from other species of Cormorant, diving and swimming well, feeding 
entirely on fish, and often congregating for hours upon a projecting rock or 
headland, where, in pairing time, they enact various absurd performances, 
billing and curvetting about one another in a very ridiculous manner. The 
note is a hoarse croak, which never varies, so far as I have observed. They 
seem to be on particularly good terms with the Chionis, and are often joined 
by gulls when sunning themselves. They build upon shelves, for the most 
part in the precipitous faces of cliffs overlooking the water ; the base of 
the nest being raised sometimes as much as two feet, and composed of 
mingled mud and excrement. Upon this pedestal is constructed a rather 
artistic nest of long blades of grass. Apparently, they continue to use the 
old nests year after year, adding a new layer each season, and thus building 
the nest up. The first eggs were found November 5th ; there being some- 
times two and sometimes three in a nest. They were procured at first by 
the kind assistance of Mr. Stanley, and a length of rope which tied us 
together, one end being knotted round the waist of each. One would then 
remain above and hold on, while the other clambered a little way down the 
face of the cliff and secured the eggs. After a time, however, I discovered 
a lot of nests, near a rookery of Rock-hopper Penguins, accessible from 
below, where, on December 4th, the young birds were firstobserved. Eggs, 
green, with white chalky incrustation. The young are most ridiculous- 
looking objects, being pot-bellied, naked, and perfectly black, and seem to 
be less advanced in development at the time of hatching than most birds, 
the bones of the tarsus and foot being not yet ossified. Small fish were 
generally lying by the nests. The old birds were very solicitous about 
their young, hissing and stretching out their necks, and refusing to leave 
their nests until pushed off. Yet, when I took one of the young away from 
the nest, and placed it close by on the rock, the mother seemed neither to 
recognize its constant chirping nor to be aware that one of her brood was 
missing. Certainly she paid no attention to it, The odour in the neigh- 
bourhood of the nesting-places was most offensive. The young birds are 
infested with a tick of prodigious size,” 
Phalacrocorax finschii. 
Under this name Mr. R. B. Sharpe has distinguished from P. brevirostris 
à specimen in the British Museum, having a white spot on the wing coverts. 
Mr. W. T. L. Travers, who has just returned from the Hot Springs, 
informs me that, in Lake Tarawera, he observed a small Shag, differing 
apparently from P. brevirostris, being of inferior size and marked with white 
on the wings. He was unable to obtain a very close inspection, but it 
seems not unlikely that this is the bird described by Mr. Sharpe. 
