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of New Zealand, appears to be quite distinct. It has a broad white patch on the middle of the back in 
the adult plumage, no crest, and the white extending over the cheeks up to the naked skin round the 
eye. It has a broad white bar on the upper wing-coverts.” He then gives a coloured figure of the 
bird which he takes to be Phalacrocorax im^erialis, and formulates the following synopsis of the 
group : — 
a. Dorsi postici fascia alba : crista nulla . . . . 1. imperialis. 
b. Dorsi fascia nulla ; 
Crista nulla 2. verrucosus. 
V C ' t t’ -< nuda 3. albiventris. 
1 Guise liiiea media plumosa ... 4. carunculatus. 
1 am sorry to differ from so expert an ornithologist, but I cannot follow Dr. Sclater in this 
identification. He makes the absence of a crest and the presence of the dorsal patch of white the 
distinguishing characters of Phalacrocorax imperialis, but on turning to Captain King’s original 
description (^. c.) I find that his bird is a crested one. His description is as follows : 
Phol. capite cristato, collo posteriori, corporeque supra intense purpurcis : alis scapularibusque viridi-atris : 
remigibus rectricibusque duodecim fusco-atris : corpore subtiis, fascia alarum, macuiaque dorsi medii sericeo-albis : 
rostro nigro : pedibus flavescentibus. 
From this it is evident that the ‘ Challenger ’ specimen figured and described by Sclater is not the 
bird to which King gave the name of imperialis, unless we suppose that it sometimes acquires a crest; 
but Dr. Sclater himself calls it, by way of distinction, the uncrested form. Nor does the formula h 
fit P. carunculatus, which, as I shall show when treating of that species, is never crested, whilst it 
does exhibit, in the breeding-plumage, the patch of white on the back. It is perfectly clear also that 
the crested Chatham-Island form, of which I have given a figure, is distinct from the uncrested 
P. carunculatus. It cannot he P. cirrhatus of Gmelin, because his bird is larger than P. carunculatus, 
whilst this is decidedly smaller. 
After a careful investigation of the subject, and a comparison of all the specimens within my 
reach, I have decided to treat the crested bird from the Chatham Islands as the true Phalacrocorax 
imperialis, and the uncrested New-Zealand form as Gmelin’s P. carunculatus. It would perhaps be 
safer to give to this form a new distinctive title ; but I am unwilling to add another name to the 
already somewhat tangled synonymy of this species and its allies. I am aware that it is “ a long cry ” 
from the Straits of Magellan to the Chatham Islands ; but experience teaches us that it is impos- 
sible to lay down any strict geographical rules of distribution for birds of this class. As a case in 
point, I may mention an occurrence reported to me by Sir James Hector:—” When 100 miles off the 
Horn, a specimen of the White-throated Shag {Phalacrocorax irevirostris) flew on board our ship ” ! 
Even in the countries which these birds inhabit their distribution is often very eccentric and 
unaccountable, lake, for example, P. punctatus, a species which is extremely common on the coast 
of the South Island, but is rarely met with north of Cook’s Strait. Mr. Adams, late taxidermist to the 
Auckland Museum, informed me that he found a colony of these birds on the coast near Waiheke 
and shot six of them. To my great surprise I saw one in the Taupo Lake in March 1877 ; in July 
1883 I saw a flight of six in the Hauraki Gulf; and in January 1886 I found a solitary pair 
breeding in the midst of hundreds of the Pied Shag on some pohutukawa trees on the Kurima 
rocks, in the Bay ot Plenty. Referring to the same species, Mr. T. W. Kirk says (Ibis, 1888, p. 44) • 
“ I was lately informed by Mr. J. C. M‘Lean that a colony of fifteen or sixteen of these birds has for 
more than five years been established on a reef inside Cape Kidnappers. The latter o-entleman 
states that he has collected the eggs, but never found more than two in a nest. In December 1885 
there were five nests (composed of seaweed), placed at equal distances apart, along the ledo-e which 
runs on one side of the rock about three feet from the top.” 
