326 



Note. In my " Further Notes on the Ornithology of New Zealand/' read before the Wellington Philo- 

 sophical Society on the 12th of November, 1870, and published in the ' Transactions of the New- 

 Zealand Institute ' (vol. iii. pp. 36-56), I stated my reasons for adopting the generic title of Phalacro- 

 corax (Brisson), in preference to Graculus; and a further consideration of the question has only tended 

 to confirm me in that decision. I have thought it right to make this statement, inasmuch as I find the 

 latter name adhered to both in Dr. Finsch's latest revision of the nomenclature in the ' Journal fvir 

 Ornithologie ' (July 1872) and in Captain Hutton's ' Catalogue.' Not only is Phalacrocorax the older 

 title, and therefore entitled to recognition; but, as I have already pointed out (/. c), there seems to be 

 no finality about the other name. In Mr. G. R. Gray's first list (App. to Dieff. N. Z. vol. ii. p. 201) 

 it was written Graucalus, in his " Birds of New Zealand " (Voy. Ereb. and Terr. p. 20) it was changed to 

 Gracalus; and in his later list (Ibis, 1862) it became Graculus, a term originally applied specifically by 

 Linnaeus to the Green Cormorant of Europe, Pelecanus graculus (Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 217). 



After comparing a lai'ge number of specimens, I feel no hesitation in keeping this form distinct 

 from the well-known P. carbo of Europe, although the two species are closely related and have 

 doubtless sprung from a common ancestor. In thus separating it, I am supported by Mr. Gould, 

 who had frequent opportunities of investigating the subject in Australia and Tasmania, where 

 this bird is very generally dispersed. The same view was taken by Mr. G. R. Gray in his latest 

 arrangement of the group (Hand-list of Birds, 1871); and Mr. R. B. Sharpe has since adopted it 

 in his classification of the specimens in the British Museum. Dr. Finsch, on the other hand, is 

 of opinion that the New-Zealand bird ought not to be regarded as a species, and he accordingly 

 unites it to P. carbo. In this he is followed by Captain Hutton, who, however, in a letter quoted 

 by me on a former occasion*, expressed a very positive opinion to the contrary, adding: — " I was 

 well acquainted with the latter in all seasons in the Crimea, and I am pretty well acquainted with 

 carboides up here (Waikato), and I feel sure that they are different." In the critical notes 

 appended to his 'Catalogue' (1871), he writes: — "Having compared many New-Zealand speci- 

 mens with one from Australia in the Colonial Museum, and with another from Scotland in the 

 Nelson Museum, I am convinced that they cannot be separated!" Conclusions thus hastily 

 formed, and resting on such imperfect data, do not appear to me entitled to much weight ; and if 

 Captain Hutton has since had an opportunity of examining the fine European examples of P. 

 carbo in the Canterbury Museum, it is quite possible that he has once more changed his opinion. 

 The Black Shag is very common on our coasts and within the mouths of our tidal rivers. 

 Along the ocean-beach it is generally dispersed singly or in pairs, but on the sand-banks it often 

 congregates to the number of twenty or thirty. It walks with an awkward waddling gait, sup- 

 porting itself in part with its tail which is moved alternately to the right and left at every step. 

 It has a very fetid odour ; and a person approaching a flock of these birds on the leeward side is 

 made sensible of this at a hundred yards or more. Its usual attitude on the beach is one of 

 repose, with the body inclined forward, the tail resting at full length on the ground, and the head 

 drawn in upon the shoulders. When disturbed, it instantly stretches up its neck, listens, and 

 watches attentively for a short time, and then, after a few ungainly steps, rises into the air with a 

 laboured flapping of its wings, and flies off in the direction of the sea, into which it speedily 



* Trans. N. Z. Instit. 1S70, vol. iii. p. 55. 



