23 



Till recent years there was a great breeding place of this species in a clump of rimn 

 trees on the north shore of the Papaitonga Lake. I observed that, soon after sunset, the 

 Shags came in, singly or in parties, from the sea to roost for the night on the naked branches 

 of these trees. When they arrived there was always much contention and confabulation for 

 places. On the wing, when a pair are in company, the appreciably larger size of the male is 

 manifest at a glance. 



I had on one occasion an instance of the marvellous vitality of this bird. I was 

 standing, gun in hand, on the western point of the island in Papaitonga Lake, when I 

 observed one of these Shags at a high elevation coming in from the sea. Taking a very 

 long shot, I gave him the choke-barrel, and saw at once that my bird was hard hit, for he 

 immediately doubled back and made for the sea. After a flight of nearly half a mile, at full 

 speed, he came down into the lake with a splash, and on being picked up shortly afterwards 

 was found to be shot in the head. 



As already stated, I have received a female of this species in full plumage with a well- 

 defined nuchal crest, from which it is clear that both sexes possess this adornment at the 

 breeding season. 



When I was at Papaitonga at Christmas, 1897, the mill-hands were felling some lofty 

 rimu-trees on the northern side of the lake— 15 or 20 chains from the water— on which the 

 Sea-shags, for many years past, had fixed their " rookery." I regretted very much to see these 

 trees come down, but they were beyond my boundary, and I could not interfere. The young 

 birds had not yet quitted their nests, although they were well advanced— covered with thick 

 black down, and with quills and tail-feathers several inches long. 



The female has the throat buffy white; the neck, grey and brown intermixed; the 

 breast and upper part of abdomen, creamy white ; and the abdomen, grey and black intermixed. 



Young of the first year. — Bare skin on the face and at the angles of the mouth, as 

 also that covering the gular sac, vivid orange yellow, darker round the eyes and on the 

 lores, the latter sparsely covered with minute feathers, and divided lengthwise by a streak 

 of brown, extending from the eyes to the base of the upper mandible ; irides brownish grey ; 

 tongue and inside of mouth dull yellow ; legs black. 



This is, I think, the only native bird to which protection ought not to be extended. 

 The same experience has doomed the bird on this side of the world, as witness the following 

 paragraph in an English paper : — 



The Isle of Wight County Council has decided to apply to the Secretary of State for an order with- 

 drawing the statutory protection to the Cormorant, owing to its destructiveness to fish. Admiral Sir A.'de 

 Horsey, however, pointed out that the Cormorants were very useful in warning mariners in case of fog that 

 they were nearing land. 



Of the genus Phalacrocorax Captain Hutton writes* : — " New Zealand waters contain more 

 different kinds of Cormorants, commonly called Shags, than the waters of any other part of the 

 world. While we have fifteen species, there are only twelve in North and South America, 

 seven in Asia, six in Africa, iiye in Australia, and three in Europe. The large number of 

 species in New Zealand is attributed to two causes. Eirst, this country was the meeting- 

 place of two migratory streams, one from the Malay Archipelago and New Caledonia, the 

 other from Patagonia. Secondly, New Zealand has been broken into a number of islands, 

 lying at considerable distances apart, and these have been isolated for a very long time." 



* 'Animals of New Zealand,' p. 286. 



