170 
just returned from the Hot Springs, informs me that, in Lake Tarawera, he observed a small Shag, 
differing apparently from P. hrevirostris , being of inferior size and marked with white on the wings. He 
was unable to obtain a very close inspection, but it seems not unlikely that this is the bird described by 
Mr. Sharpe under the name of P.finschi.” (Trans. N.-Z. Inst. vol. ix. p. 336.) 
The White-throated Shag, which appears to be confined to New Zealand and the Chatham Islands, 
frequents the freshwater rivers and lagoons in all parts of the country. Like some of its congeners 
it is social or gregarious, obtains its subsistence by diving, and roosts at night on the branches of trees 
overhanging the water. Its food consists chiefly of eels and small fish ; but I have also found the 
stomach filled with freshwater shrimps. 
It has a habit of swimming, for a yard or two at a time, with its head just under the surface as 
if foraging for food under Avater. 
It is met with more or less on all parts of the coast, but there are some localities which it 
specially affects. One of these is the Porirua harbour near Wellington. Latterly the progress of 
the Wellington and Manawatu railway-works has interfered with the quietude of the place, but for 
nearly thirty years past I have been accustomed to see them when riding or driving along that road. 
They congregate at the little rocky points, in parties of three or four, and sometimes from 15 to 20 — 
some sitting bolt upright, others with their “ banners unfurled,” and others preening their feathers 
in the sunshine. The Avhite throat is very conspicuous as the bird turns its head from side to side, 
and the occasional presence of a white-A'ested individual among those wearing the black livery always 
has a picturesque effect. 
It is very strong on the AA'ing, and often ascends to a considerable height in the air, and then 
sails in wide circles. On these occa.sions, owing to its narroAvness of body and length of neck and 
tail, it has very much the appearance, when seen from below, of a flying cross. 
It is active in all its movements and often exhibits an unusual amount of intelligence amounting 
almost to ratiocination. For example : I remember once standing on the hank of the Waikato river, 
near the Aniwanhva rapids — at the point Avhere the stream is so narroAV that in ancient times a war-party 
bridged it Avith a fallen tree — Avhen I observed one of these little. Shags rise from the Avater and take 
its silent course up the stream, skimming Ioav along the surface. It passed a little jutting rock, 
suggestive of a Shag station, and after proceeding some yards further seemed to change its mind, 
dropped suddenly into the Avater, deliberately swam back, and mounted the stone, where it remained 
some time sunning its outstretched wings. 
I have remarked that it has a special fondness for waterfalls and loves to disport itself in the 
vapoury spray. On the 23rd of October I paid a visit (by no means the first) to the Huka Falls, 
near Taupo, one of the finest sights of its kind in all the Southern Hemisphere. Here the Avhole 
volume of the Waikato river (after a course of fifty miles from its source in the Ruapehu mountains), 
confined within stone walls scarcely thirty feet apart and forming as it were an immense sluice-box, 
comes plunging down the steep channel Avith terrific velocity till it shoots over a precipice of forty 
feet in a magnificent cascade, discharging about 240 million gallons of Avater every hour iirto a basin 
of seething foam. Nothing can be more beautiful or picturesque than the view Avhich is obtained of 
this unique Avaterfall from below, on the Wairakei side of the river. The fine spray caused by the 
madly plunging volume rises in a vapoury mist high above the basin, and the slanting rays of the 
sun upon this produces ever-changing rainboAvs of exquisite beauty. Descending the bank, I entered 
the little rocky cavern knoAvn as Ethel’s cave*, the arched roof of AAdrich is densely covered Avith 
Lomarla, Adiantum, and other hanging ferns of great beauty, whilst the entrance is protected and 
* So named in honour of Mrs. Howard Vincent, -who was the first lady to explore it. 
