28 



suspect that there is some error as to the locality, and that not improbably it has become dissociated from 

 the other specimens collected at Kerguelen during that voyage and presented to the Museum by the 

 Admiralty at the same time. The specimen was probably, therefore, from Kerguelen Land, and not from 

 New Zealand. 



Order PELECANIFORMES.] 



[Family PHALACROCORACnm 



PHALACROCOEAX COL ENS 01 



(AUCKLAND-ISLAND SHAG.) 



Phalacrocorax colensoi, Buller, Birds of New Zealand, yoI ii., p. 161. 

 Phalacrocorax rothschildi, Forbes, Ibis, vol. ¥., p. 537 (1893). 



Dk. H. 0. Forbes, in his paper 'On the Birds inhabiting the Chatham Islands,' which 

 appeared in the Ibis for October, 1893, describes, under the name of Phalacrocorax rothschildi, 

 a Shag found at the Chatham Islands and in the south of New Zealand, separating it from 

 Phalacrocorax colensoi, and saying : " This species is distinguished at once by the approximation 

 of the dark plumage of the head beneath the throat, leaving a comparatively narrow white 

 stripe between them." He also makes the possession of both the white alar bar and the 

 white dorsal spot characteristic of his new species. 



In my opinion, we have a good deal more to learn about the Shags inhabiting New 

 Zealand and the adjacent islands ; and I think perhaps Dr. Forbes was somewhat rash in 

 characterising this as a new species without further investigation. 



The type of my Phalacrocorax colensoi* was from the Auckland Islands, but (like all 

 the other specimens collected there by Mr. Burton at a wrong season of the year) it was 

 in old and faded plumage, with dingy colours. Long afterwards, however, I have had an 

 opportunity of examining a large number of skins in good plumage, collected by Mr. Henry 

 Travers at the Auckland Islands and on Campbell Island during a cruise of the Government 

 gunboat ' Hinemoa.' The examination of this collection satisfied me that Mr. Forbes's 

 " characters" are of very little value. The form and width of the white stripe down the 

 foreneck, the presence or absence of the alar bar, and the dorsal patch of white, are incon- 

 stant features, due apparently to age or season. It will probably be found, when we become 



* This species was named in honour of the late Kev. W. Colenso F.E.S. 

 Sir Joseph Hooker, in a letter to the Author, dated June 23rd, 1895, referring to this veteran, said: « I am 

 always glad to see Colenso's name brought forward. I wish he could have been persuaded to treat of plants as you 

 have of animals, but such is not his genius. Considering what his early training and duties were. I must always 

 regard his labours, m their way, transcendental ! Had he received an education that trained his mind fco check the eye 

 he would have done wonders as a botanist ; as it is, I can only marvel at the results of his eye-work as a collector and 

 his indefatigable industry, zeal, and self-denial, and I look back on my weeks of personal intercourse, and years of active 

 correspondence with him, as a long episode of New Zealand in my life." 



