

Order PELECANIFORMES.] 



[Family PHALACROCORAGID^. 



PHALACROCORAX CHALCONOTUS. 



(GRAY'S SHAG.) 



Phalacrocorax chalconotus (Gray), Buller, Birds of New Zealand, vol. ii., p. 162. 



Notwithstanding the argument I formerly put forward in favour of the recognition of 

 Phalacrocorax glaucus, Homo, and Jacq., as a distinct species (vol. ii., p. 163), no precisely similar 

 examples have come under my notice, and I am forced to the conclusion that, although my 

 specimens were to all appearance adult birds, they represented in reality young states of 

 P. chalconotus. 



On July 10th (1896), I received from Stewart Island a beautiful pair — both handsomely 

 crested, but particularly the male. 



Naked space on face entirely papillate and of a purplish-black colour, with a line of minute 

 red papillae along the forehead on each side of the head; orbital skin forming a ring of bright 

 cobalt, narrow and mixed with black above the eye, broad and bright below ; irides, pale brown ; 

 angles of mouth and the whole of the bare skin at the base of the lower mandible and on the 

 throat (separated by a narrow gular strip of feathers), bright orange-red ; culmen, dark grey ; 

 sides of upper and the whole of the lower mandible, light grey ; legs and feet fleshy-white, with a 

 pinkish tinge; soles, under surface of toes and claws, black. No alar bar or dorsal patch; 

 plumage uniform bronzy-black with oil-green reflections. 



Some of the black-plumaged specimens present, as it seems to me, vestiges of an earlier 

 dark brown plumage. The bird known to us as P. glaucus is, therefore, without doubt, the 

 same Shag in a more immature condition; in other words, the first year's plumage of 

 P. chalconotus. 



I have examined the skin of a Shag (from Stewart Island) in the possession of a Wellington 

 collector. It clearly shows the transition from the so-called P. glaucus to P. chalconotus. It 

 is not crested ; the lores are slightly feathered ; and the old dull-brown plumage is being replaced 

 by the glossy livery characteristic of this bird. 



I have now before me thirteen specimens, all. received from Mr. Marklund. They are all 

 crested but two ; the sexes alike, except that the male has the bill more robust. Some of them 

 have white filaments behind the eyes, but none of them have the dorsal patch of white. 



In one of these specimens I notice that the quills are moulting out, the old ones being of a 

 uniform colour. This again seems to confirm the view that P. glaucus is only this Shag in its first 

 plumage. This (as well as the other specimens) has the skin at the base of the lower mandible 

 and the unfeathered part of the gular sac of a bright brick-red colour. One of them has short 

 white filamentous plumes above and beyond the eyes. 



Of P. chalconotus there are four specimens in the British Museum. They have neither 

 alar bars nor dorsal spots of white — not even a trace. One of them is very bronzy and shining, 

 the others are dull. The bronzy one has a small, but well-developed occipital crest. The 

 dullest of them is very much like the so-called P. glaucus, with vinous-brown throat and very 

 little gloss on the plumage. The two others are passing from the adolescent plumage into 

 that of the adult, the new bronze-green feathers in the mantle contrasting strongly with 

 the faded brown ones of the old plumage. These last three have no crest whatever. 



Vol. ii.— 5 



