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localities on the shores of large inland lakes, on wooded islands, or on the sea-shore much larger com- 
munities are often formed — sometimes as many as fifty or a hundred pairs — and a breeding-place of 
this kind once selected is seldom deserted. I visited one of these “ shaggeries ” on the Rurima rocks, 
off Whakatane, about the middle of January, just at the most interesting time, the young birds being 
then fledged and preparing to take their flight.' 
The Rurima rocks, which are situated about five miles from Whale Island and four from the 
mainland, consist of three small semi-conical hills, which have so far resisted the erosive or wasting 
forces of the ocean, two of them being connected together by a low-lying area of rock and sand-drift 
forming a sort of atoll. The detached one is known as Motoki, and this is one of the few last refuges 
of the expiring tuatara lizard, the wonderful Sphenodon punctatum. It is a long flat rock with a 
cone in the centre covered with beautiful pohutukawa trees [Metrosideros iomentosa). Around the 
base of this cone there is a dense growth of stunted angiangi {Coprosma lucida) looking very fresh 
and green. Among the rocks and in the burrows under the shade of this dense vegetation the 
tuatara may still be found in considerable numbers. Rurima proper is of similar formation, and the 
central cone is thickly covered with pohutukawa. On the side toward Whale Island the birds have 
established a shaggery of considerable extent. The trees on this side are whitened and leafless, being 
apparently killed by the excessive amount of ordure which covers them. As our boat approached we 
could see scores of the birds perched on the trees, above and around their nests, and scores more 
standing in ranks on the hard beach below. 
We found the Shags in great force, and it was most interesting to watch the operations of both 
old and young birds. There were perhaps 80 or 100 nests, many of which were vacant owing to the 
lateness of our visit, the breeding having commenced in October. The nests are large, round structures, 
composed, as already mentioned, of dry sticks and twigs and other loose matei’ials, bound together by 
means of a peculiar kind of kelp, for which the Shags may be observed diving in the sea, sometimes in 
four fathoms of water. They have a somewhat compact appearance and are usually placed in a thick 
fork among the branches or between two limbs of a tree lying close together. In each of those still 
tenanted there were two fully-fledged young birds ; and these youthful Shags kept up a constant 
“ squirling ” noise, accompanied by a perpetual swaying of the head from side to side, in an impatient 
sort of way. The old bird comes up from the sea with her gullet full of small fish, and takes up her 
station on a branch adjoining to or overlooking the nest. The young birds, alter craning their necks 
almost to dislocation, quit their nest and mount up alongside the parent, when the peculiar feeding- 
operation commences. The mother bends down her head in a loving way, opens wide her mandibles, 
and the young Shag, with an impatient guttural note, thrusts his head right down the parental 
throat and draws forth from the pouch, after much fumbling about, the first instalment of his 
dinner. No sooner has he swallowed this than he begins to coax for more, caressing the mother’s 
throat and neck with his bill in a very amusing fashion. The old bird waits till she has recovered 
the discomfort of the last feed, then opens her mouth again, and the action is repeated, first by one 
young Shag, then by the other. When the pouch is emptied, the mother spreads her ample wings and 
goes off for a fresh supply of auas, whilst her offspring shuffle themselves back again into their nest 
to await her return. But this feeding-process and the squirling cries which herald it are going on at 
the same time all over the camp, and as a consequence there is a perfect din of voices. In the midst 
of these may be heard deep guttural cries ; but these are probably the occasional scoldings of the old 
birds to repi'ess the inconsiderate eagerness of their young ones, for during the operation of feeding 
there is sometimes a good deal of apparent squabbling among the young fraternity for the first atten- 
tion, accompanied by a vigorous fluttering and flapping of the wings. In one of the nests, where the 
young birds were not sufficiently advanced to leave it, I observed that the occupants during the 
intervals when their parents were absent kept up an incessant flapping of their wings and swaying of 
