108 



its progress whilst soaring or wheeling aloft, one might imagine it to be trying 

 " great circle sailing ;" it approaches and glides to its j)erch with sweeping curves 

 rather than by a direct course ; its appearance is the signal for alarm amongst 

 all poultry within reasonable distance, yet it is harmless and peaceable except 

 where iisli are to be found. After much occupation on or in the water, it has a 

 knack of drying its feathers in a peculiar manner, which gives it a most 

 grotesque appeai'ance ; it stands, say on a sunlit rock, stretching out its quivering 

 wings horizontally, till it really looks not at all unlike the old-fashioned sign 

 of the "spread eagle." 



Its activity in the pursuit of its finny pi'ey is indeed remarkable, and, 

 as is well known, in some countries led to the taming of the bird for the 

 purpose of rendering this dexterity of service to man ; one of the old offices in 

 the royal household of England was that of Master of the Cormorants. 



Its breeding station sometimes is shared by others of the species, whose 

 nests are built in pretty close proximity ; sticks, partially 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 rnost four in nuniber, are long ovoiconical in shape ; they are greenish 

 white, covered with chalky incrustations ; they measure 2 inches 5 lines in 

 length, and 1 inch 6 lines in breadth. The young birds remain in the nest till 

 they have attained a considerable size. 



In the neighbourhood of Christchvirch, 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 

 Graculidce. Numbers of bii'ds were attracted to the spot ; a visit to this 

 nursery ground show^ed 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 

 ofi^spring. Unsavoury odours, of a most penetrating kind, pei'vaded this 

 colony and its neighbourhood, from the great accumulation of slimy exuviae ; 

 one could conceive that it was possible for the sea-washed rock to be changed 

 into the guano island — it would be simplj^ a sum in multiplication worked 

 out by Time. Without staying to moralize on the fact that the same great 

 Chemist ti'ansmuted the poison stench of one age into a commei^cial item which 

 has afibrded 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 



