42 



in a nock. They were all black, and I can give you indisputable evidence to that effect. 

 Some would remain on the surface while the remainder were fishing. It is a shy bird, and 

 I have always had trouble to get within range. However, that time we surprised them, and 

 were within about thirty yards of them. During the same day, at the Haumai Creek, I shot 

 a White-throated Shag. This bird, compared with the other varieties here, is rare. The 

 small Black Shag appears in numbers in the winter, but I have not seen it later than 

 September. I know nothing about their breeding-places or habits. It seems strange to me 

 that, if it is a variety of P. brevirostris, I have never seen any of them with any sign of 

 white. I should think that if it was a variety, I should have seen White-throated Shags amongst 

 them." 



1 afterwards received, through the same kind services, several more specimens of this 

 Shag of both sexes. 



Mr. Py croft writes later on : " This bird is common in the winter, but is seldom 

 seen in the summer. At the present time — August — they are very numerous, and must 

 consume a great quantity of fish. They seem to have a weakness for the young mullet. I 

 secured eight of these birds at one shot, when a flock of about sixty were fishing in front 

 of the Opua railway station. I believe they breed inland on the banks of the fresh- water rivers, 

 but I have obtained no eggs." 



Mr. Gould writes: "This Shag is found in most of the southern parts of the Australian 

 Continent, and appears to affect the rivers and lagoons of the interior rather than the sea- 

 coast ; at least, such was the result of my observations. I found it nowhere more abundant 

 than on the Eivers Mokai, Peel, and Namoi. Its habits did not appear to differ from those 

 of the other members of the family : it was usually seen perched on the branches of the eucalypti 

 overhanging the water, and on the spars and snags of the fallen trees which protruded above 

 its surface, in small companies of from five to twenty in number. Its food consists of fish, frogs, 

 newts, &c." 



Although as yet only met with locally in the far north of New Zealand, this species enjoys 

 a wide range. It is met with on the coasts of iVustralia, also in Norfolk Island and New 

 Caledonia, and away north to New Guinea, the Moluccas, Java, and South Borneo. 



Order PELECANIFORMES.] 



[Family PHALACROCORACIDiE. 



PHALACROCORAX BR EYT EOS THIS. 



(WHITE-THROATED SHAG.) 



Phalacrocorax brevirostris, Gould; Buller, Birds of New Zealand, vol. ii., p. 168. 



The White-throated Shag is, as is well known, habitually shy and wary; but on the Buller 

 Eiver I met with it in a new character. Those who have travelled by the coach road 

 through the Buller Gorge will perhaps remember a picturesque spot just above the junction 

 of the Motupiko river with the Buller, from which a beautiful view of the latter, east and 

 west, presents itself. On a jutting point of shingle bank, just below the road, one of these 

 Shags was resting when we arrived, and there he remained, in spite of all our efforts to 

 rouse him into action. 



