Ham 



43 



It is a curious circumstance that, although I have twice visited the West Coast and 

 been through all the Sounds, I never saw on the coast there an example of the White-throated 

 Shag, so common in all other parts of the country. In Preservation Inlet I saw, on two 

 occasions, the closely allied Phalacrocorax melanoleucus, and found this species breeding on 

 Stewart Island. 



It is plentiful in the last-named locality but remarkably shy, it being almost impossible 

 to get within gun-range, except by stratagem. 



From an extensive series of specimens in my own collection, I take the progressive 

 changes towards maturit}^ to be as follows : — First year : uniform dull black, stained more or 

 less with brown. Second year : satiny black, sometimes with indications of white on the 

 throat. Third year : adult plumage, with white throat. 



In some examples the white of the throat extends downwards, covering a part or even 

 the whole of the foreneck and crop, and sometimes even the whole of the under surface. 

 I can only account for this on the theory of albinism. The young of this species is 

 entirely brownish black ; and the adult, of both sexes, has a white throat. But the young 

 birds are not very numerous. For example : I counted on one occasion twenty-five of these 

 birds in one nock perched on the branches of a fallen tree that was lying half submerged 

 in the water. Three of these were entirely dark birds ; the other twenty- two had white 

 throats. From first to last I have seen, I should think, thousands of these Shags, and it is 

 a rare occurrence to find the white extended downwards and appearing on the under surface. 

 It has been suggested that these pied birds are hybrids between Phalacrocorax brevirostris 

 and P. melanoleucus ; but the latter species is extremely rare in New Zealand, and especially 

 so in the North Island.* 



I have received from Otago a very curious variety of this Shag. The plumage of the 

 upper surface is normal ; patch on throat much restricted in extent and creamy-white ; 

 middle of fore-neck, breast, and under-parts to the vent, greyish-white and brown intermixed, 

 this effect being produced by each feather having a brown centre and greyish- white filaments. 



In my opinion, the bird characterised by Dr. Sharpe as a distinct species, under the 

 name of Phalacrocorax finschi (' App. Yoy. Ereb. & Terr.', p. 37) is, without doubt, a partial 

 albino of the common form. 



This is, no doubt, the species referred to in the following paragraph which appeared in 

 ' The Hot Lakes Chronicle ' (March, 1903) :— 



A gentleman, while fishing at the Utuhina on Thursday last, had a curious experience, and one which 

 was disastrous to his rod and tackle. When throwing his minnow into a deep pool, a Shag in full flight 

 suddenly came round a bend of the river and was caught in mid-air by the hooks attached to the minnow. 

 The bird was going at such a speed that the rod was dragged from the angler's hands, and the Shag got 

 away with the minnow and thirty yards of the line, leaving the rod in some of the adjacent bushes. 



* After describing a series of specimens with more or less white and whitish-brown on the under parts, Mr. 

 Ogilvie Grant (< Cat. Birds, B. M.,' xxvi., p. 401) continues : " The above states of plumage I believe to be those which 

 are normally gone through by P. brevirostris, but there are a number of differently marked forms, in both adult and 

 immature plumage, which appear to be abnormal. One example in the British Museum, as already described by Buller, 

 has the under parts nearly pure white, only a few of the feathers being partially or wholly black ; a second has the black 

 and white feathers of the underparts mixed in equal proportions ; a third has only the chest feathers mixed with white, 

 while in a fourth the plumage is normal, but there are a few white feathers on the lower part of the abdomen. It is 

 quite clear that these variations in plumage are not due to season, sex, or age, and they may be accounted for in two 

 ways— partial albinism, or possibly by interbreeding with stray specimens of the Australian P. melanoleucus. " 



