Okdee STEGANOPODES.] 
[Fam. PELECAMD^. 
PHALAGEOCOEAX CHALCONOTFS. 
(GKAY^S SHAG.) 
Graucalus auritus, Gray, in DiefF. Trav. ii., App. p. 201 (1843). 
Gracalus chalconotm. Gray, Voy. Ereb. and Terr., Birds, p. 20, pi. xxi. (1845). 
Graculus glaucus, Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av. ii. p. 171 (1857). 
Ad. pileo cristate colloque toto, dorso postico et uropygio purpurascenti-nigris, vix viridi lavatis : interscapulio, 
scapularibus et tectricibus alarum brunneis, plumis sordide viridi marginatis, tectricibus minimis purpura- 
scente lavatis : remigibus brunneis, secundariis olivaceo-viridi lavatis : caudi nigra, scapis ad basin albis : 
subtus sordide nitide viridis, jugulo vix purpurascente : rostro cinerascenti-brunneo, culmine saturatiore : 
pedibus sordide flavis : iride tbalassino-viridi. 
Adult. Head, including the crest, and the whole o£ the neck, back, rump, and upper tail-coverts shining purplish 
black, glossed with green in certain lights j mantle and upper surface of wings purplish brown, each feather 
margined with dull shining green ; the whole of the under surface shining purplish black, but not so highly 
glossed as the upper parts •, quills dark brown, the secondaries tinged with olive ; tail-feathers black, the 
shafts white towards the base. Irides green ; bill greyish brown, darker on the ridge ; legs and feet dull 
yellow. Total length 28 inches j wing, from flexure, 12 ; tail 5'5 ; bill, along the ridge 2'6, length from 
gape to extremity of lower mandible 3’5 j tarsus 2‘25 ; longest toe and claw 3 25. 
Nestling. Covered with extremely thick, long, woolly down of a dull sooty- brown colour; bill dark brown, 
yellowish on the under mandible ; lores, cheeks, and sides of the chin perfectly bare and dark coloured 
(black in the dried specimen) ; on the membrane at the base of the lower mandible, on each side, a triangular 
spot of orange extending from the angle of the mouth to the strip of down which passes up between the 
crura of the lower jaw; over the oil-gland a tuft of rather stiff, filamentous feathers of the same colour as 
the down. 
This species is comparatively Tare in New Zealand, and it has not yet been met with elsewhere. 
My description of the adult is taken from Mr. Gray’s type specimen in the British Museum, 
which was obtained by Mr. Percy Earl at Otago, in the South Island ; and more recently Dr. Einsch 
has identified an example of this species, forwarded to him by Prof. Hutton from the same locality. 
There are several examples in the Otago Museum, and my own collection contains both adult 
and young. 
1 believe I am right in referring to this species a pair of Shags which I observed at the mouth 
of Port Chalmers in February 1865. I saw one of them dive, and, after a considerable interval, come 
to the surface with a small sea-lobster, which the bird battered to death on the surface of the water 
before devouring it. 
On the ocean-beach near Waikanae, in the North Island, I saw in the autumn of 1882 a pair of 
Shags which I have no hesitation in referi’ing to this species, as they allowed me to approach near 
enough to observe their burnished plumage. 
Mr. Percy Seymour writes to me that he found Phalacrocorax clialconotus and P. carunculatus 
breeding together in the same shaggery on the Otago coast. He visited the place in August and 
found the young hatched out. 
