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27 



the White Eocks in Queen Charlotte Sound, and numbering, according to Captain Fairchild's 

 estimate, about fifty birds. All the specimens collected by Mr, Henry Travers, notices of which 

 have from time to time been communicated to the Society, came from this locality. And it is 

 worth remembering that Latham, who originally described the species, states that it inhabits 

 New Zealand as well as South America, being " found in Queen Charlotte Sound, but not in 

 plenty."* 



Unless the Government extends its protection to this species of Shag on its last known 

 refuge — the White Eocks near the mouth of Queen Charlotte Sound — it is very certain that it 

 will ere long be completely " wiped out." The colony has already been nearly extirpated by one 

 of the local collectors. A few breeding pairs remain ; and, if these are rigidly pro- 

 tected, this species will soon re-establish itself on the White Eocks, which it has inhabited ever 

 since Cook's time, and doubtless long before ! A special interest always attaches to a species 

 inhabiting a single spot on the globe's surface ; and this is one of them. Apart from the 

 sentiment of the thing, it is one of the finest known Shags, and very distinct in character from 

 all other members of the group. In 1892, as already mentioned, the Earl of Onslow, the 

 then Governor of New Zealand, sent some nestlings to the Zoological Society. At Christmas, 

 1893, I saw the survivor of them in one of the artificial ponds at the Gardens, and made the 

 following notes : " It is apparently a female, the colours being very dull. It has a distinct 

 prominence in front of each eye ; the bare skin on the face (at this season) is very dull red, and 

 there is a blue patch under and surrounding the eyes ; feet dull yellow or fleshy-white ; alar bar 

 narrow and indistinct, only the extremity of the coverts being white. The bird is very tame, 

 follows its keeper when called, with a low croaking note, and diverts the public by its remarkable 

 activity under water during feeding time, as seen through the plate-glass front of the tank when 

 the feeding takes place." 



The " White Eocks" — Long Island and Motuara — on which the only colony of these birds 

 we know of is established, are situated in the entrance to Queen Charlotte Sound. They consist 

 of a ridge of peaked rocks about a quarter of a mile in extent, standing high out of the water and 

 bearing W.N.W. one mile from Cape Koamoro, with a passage between and on either side of 

 them. The two islands lie three miles within the line of the two Capes forming the entrance, 

 Long Island on the eastern and Motuara on the western side. 



On August 1st I saw on board the ' Hinemoa ' four young birds of this species brought by 

 Captain Fairchild from the White Eocks, where he had found them breeding about a fortnight 

 before. There were young birds almost ready to fly in some of the nests and freshly laid 

 eggs in others, with shaglets in almost every intermediate stage of existence. He brought me 

 three eggs. 



The young birds are covered with dusky-black down, thick and short ; bill brownish-black, 

 with conspicuously white lower mandibles, and the white crosses the gular sac in a sharply 

 defined line. They make a peculiar " cawing " sound. Captain Fairchild stated that the old 

 birds, at other times so shy and unapproachable, wax very bold when their young are being taken 

 from the nests, and can easily be knocked over on the wing with a three-foot stick. 



P. carunculatus is the only species of Shag inhabiting this locality. 



In writing of this species, Dr. Forbes says : — 



One of the specimens collected during the Antarctic expeditions, and presented to the British Museum 

 by the Admiralty, bearing the name 'P. carunculatus, New Zealand,' is undoubtedly P. verrucosus. I 



* In my account of Phalacrocorax carunculatus ('Birds of N.Z.,' vol. ii., pp. 160, 161), I have quoted Mr. Percy 

 Seymour's remarks respecting a colony of Shags, breeding at the foot of a small cliff on Otago Peninsula, as 

 referring to this species. But this can hardly be the case, because he states that "their feet appeared from a 

 distance of a few yards to be reddish or brownish," whereas P. carunculatus has fleshy-white feet at all ages. 



