158 
state that both species came from South America, and when Dr. Finsch had to transfer one back ao-ain 
to New Zealand, he took carunculatus. The evidence is, however, I think, in favour of the New- 
Zealand bird being cirrhatus ; but as the Magellan Straits bird truly merits the name of carunculatus 
while the New-Zealand bird does not, I think it would be better to change Dr. Finsch’s nomenclature.” 
On one point, however, there is still some difficulty ; for Professor Hutton says {1. c. p. 335) 
“ Gmelin was the first to name the birds, and he gave the name carunculatus to the smaller carun- 
culated bird without a crest, and cirrhatus to the larger and crested bird. Gmelin says that both 
birds came from New Zealand only ; but he took his birds from Latham, and Latham says that 
cirrhatus occurs in New Zealand only, while carunculatus is rare in New Zealand, and common in 
South America. The smaller size, the caruncles, and the locality, would all point to carunculatus as 
the South-American bird ; but, on the other hand, the New-Zealand bird appears never to get a 
crest .... The statement that the Chatham-Island birds are crested, while the New-Zealand birds 
are not, must be taken with caution. I have certainly never seen a crested bird from New Zealand 
myself, but they are very rare, and I have not seen many; and F. cirrhatus appears to have been 
founded on a crested bird from New Zealand ; consequently the question as to the crest must be 
considered as unsettled. However, it appears that the Chatham-Island birds are decidedly smaller 
than those from New Zealand.” 
In a paper which I communicated to the Wellington Philosophical Society in November 1876 * 
I gave a table of measurements showing a considerable difference in size between the Chatham-Island 
bird figured in my former edition under the name of Phalacrocorax carunculatus, and a series of 
specimens (male, female, and young) which I had received from Queen Charlotte Sound, all of 
which were without a crest, and I added the following remarks : — 
Ml. Henry 1 ravers (who collected the birds now exhibited) assures me that these characters 
are constant. He met with P. carunculatus f in large numbers at the Chatham Islands, and there 
was always a crest, or some indications of it, in both sexes. The other bird he found nesting on the 
White Eocks in Queen Charlotte Sound ; and although it was the height of the breeding-season, in a 
colony of some forty or fifty nests, with birds of both sexes and of all ages frequenting them, he did 
not observe a single example with a crest, or anything approaching it. 
On comparing the heads it would be seen that the bill is much larger and stronger in one than 
in the other ; and although the colours of the soft parts are no safe criterion in dried specimens, it 
would appear that the naked spaces which in P. carunculatus are orange-red, are of a bluish colour 
in the other bird, with the exception of the patch of papillse extending from the base of the upper 
mandible towards the crown. 
“ The general style of colouring is the same in the two birds, although the tints altogether are 
duller in the uncrested form. There is the same conspicuous alar bar of white, formed by the middle 
wing-coverts ; but in addition to this the uncrested bird has a patch of the same on the outer scapulars. 
All the specimens of the latter which I have examined have two closely approximating spots of white, 
nearly of the size of a crown-piece, about the centre of the back.” 
In a letter which I received from Mr. Travers after coming to England (dated 3rd May), he 
says . I have just procured from Queen Charlotte Sound a number of these Shags in fine condition 
and a few in immature plumage (in all, about twenty specimens). None of the old birds show any 
sign of a crest.” ^ 
It is evident from the date of the letter that these last-mentioned specimens were collected in 
winter ; so that the evidence as to the absence of a crest is not so conclusive as in the former case for 
it might be fairly argued that it would be assumed only in the nuptial season. 
* Trans. N.-Z. Inst. vol. ix. p. 339. 
t Phalacrocorax im^perialis of the present edition. 
