38 



At a meeting of the Wellington Philosophical Society (in September, 1894), I exhibited 

 a very beautiful example of this species. It was in brilliant plumage, and, on being handled, 

 the feathers of the neck were soft and as yielding to the touch as the finest silk- velvet. It 

 was a male bird in full breeding plumage, and had a superb coronal crest, the feathers composing 

 which were from one to three inches in length, of narrow, even breadth, and of the same 

 brilliant metallic blue as the surrounding plumage. Dr. Forbes, in diagnosing the characters 

 of this species, includes " an alar bar and doubtfully a dorsal spot of white, as it is absent 

 in the specimens, though mature and crested, described and figured by Sir W. Buller." 

 The example under notice, although apparently in the most matured plumage, the neck 

 being adorned with white hair-like filaments an inch long and the alar bar being very con- 

 spicuous, did not present the slightest indication of the dorsal spot of white. 



In the British Museum collection there are two specimens, both with very bright plumage ; 

 only slightly crested, but with very conspicuous orange-yellow nasal caruncles. Both have broad 

 white alar bars ; one has large dorsal spots, the other only vestiges. 



It may be safely assumed, therefore, that this is either a seasonal character or is determined 

 by the age of the bird. 



Mr. J. W. Pepper, who has collected largely in the Chatham Islands, writing to me from 

 Pitt Island (January 16th, 1899) says :— " You sent me a sketch of the Black-and- White Shag's 

 head. The colour of the face is an orange-yellow, and the bare space round the eye a pretty blue 

 — I should say the colour of washing blue ; and now you have it as correctly as I can judge 

 colours." 



Mr. Travers, however, records that " the fleshy parts about the eyes and mouth are orange- 

 red." 



I have made a careful examination of a pair of specimens in my collection, and compared 

 them with my large series of P. huttoni. I have now before me two specimens of the Chatham- 

 Island Shag, which Dr. Forbes distinguished from P. irruperialis under the name of P. onslowi. 

 I find that, although the plumage of this bird is very similar to that of the Stewart-Island bird, 

 it differs in having a cushion (if I may so term it) of red caruncles on each side of the forehead. 

 In P. carunculatus, from Queen Charlotte Sound, these caruncles are orange-coloured. The male 

 bird has a much broader and more conspicuous white alar-bar than the female, and it exhibits 

 a broad white dorsal spot, which is entirely absent in the other specimen. I may add that the 

 latter has some beautiful white filaments at the back of each eye. 



There can be no doubt, I think, that Dr. Forbes' P. rothschildi (' Ibis,' 1893, pp. 537-9) 

 is only another form of P. colensoi, " the approximation of the dark plumage of the head 

 beneath the throat " being apparently the only distinguishing feature, and this is quite a 

 variable character. Indeed, as a distinct species, it has now been dropped by common 

 consent. 



Mr. Henry Travers showed me an egg he had received from the Chatham Islands, marked 

 " Pateketeke," probably belonging to this species. It is ovoido-elliptical in shape, of a pale green 

 colour, with slight chalky incrustations, and measures 2'3 by 1*5 inches. The collector refers it 

 to a " white-breasted Shag." 



