35 



green, edged with pale sliming brass-green, and the head, neck, lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts glossed 

 with darker and more bluish-green. Crest nearly 2 inches long. Tail composed of twelve feathers ; the basal 

 portion of the shafts, white. ' Bare space encircling the eye, orange ; bill, greyish brown ; legs and feet, dull 

 orange-yellow ' (Buller). Total length about 28 inches ; culmen, 23 ; wing, 11*2 ; tail, 5'6 ; tarsus, 2*5. 



Immature, probably in the second autumn plumage.— -Head, neck, and underparts, dull sooty brown, with 

 a dull oil-green gloss ; upper back glossed with dull oil-green, most of the feathers with indistinct darker 

 margins, being in this respect unlike those of the adult; wings and scapulars, brownish, with a slight gloss ; 

 lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts glossed with dark bluish-green, as in the adult. 



Hab. — New Zealand coasts. 



Order PELECANIFORMES.l 



[Family PHALAGROCORACIDiE. 



PHALACROCOHAX PTJNCTATUS 



(SPOTTED SHAG.) 



Phalacrocorax punctatus (Sparrm.), Buller, Birds of New Zealand, vol. ii., p. 164. 



Mr. H. H. Travers states, in one of his published notes, that the female of Phala- 

 crocorax punctatus is never crested; but this is a mistake. Both sexes are crested during 

 the breeding season, although I think it is probable that the female does not assume the 

 crest till the second year. Mr. W. Smyth has several female birds in full crest, and he 

 assures me that he examined them very carefully. In the female the colours are duller than 

 in the male, the crests appear to be smaller, and the white neck-stripes are not so broad 

 or conspicuous as in the male ; otherwise the sexes are alike. 



A young bird which I obtained at Stewart Island and presented to the Cambridge 

 University Museum furnished the following notes: — Upper surface glossy brownish black, 

 the small feathers composing the mantle with a terminal spot of black ; scapulars paler ; 

 back and thighs black with a bluish or greenish gloss, according to the light ; upper surface 

 of wings greyish brown, the small coverts having obsolete terminal spots ; quills and tail- 

 feathers brownish black, the latter having the shafts whitish towards the base. 



Progress towards maturity. — The white streak on the neck does not seem to appear till 

 the second year, whilst the bird is still uncrested. The example mentioned above, being in 

 the younger plumage, was without the white streak. 



There is one phase of plumage occasionally met with which I can only ascribe to modified 

 albinism. General plumage pale brownish-grey, darker on the upper surface, with obscure 

 tips of black on the scapulars and wing-coverts; back, rump, and thighs bluish-black, with 

 a slight gloss. 



Writing to me from Auckland, in August, 1895, Captain Mair says: "I have been 

 greatly struck with the numbers of Shags of this species nesting in this neighbourhood. 

 There are three rocks between the Thames and Coromandel frequented by them. Passing 

 up lately through thirty-five miles of coast, I did not see a single White-breasted Shag ; but 



