Sydney Porter—Notes on New Zealand Birds 199


coming of the colonists, when the birds were extremely numerous,

the seas were teeming with all manner of fish.


People go out in launches, catch fish by the hundred, a great

many of them quite inedible, let them die on the bottom of the boat,

then throw them back into the water, yet the same people will

grudge the Cormorants taking a paltry few for their sustenance.

I saw many species of Cormorants, but the most beautiful of

all and possibly the most lovely of all the known Cormorants is

the Spotted Shag (Stictocarbo punctatus), a species once common

around the shores of New Zealand, but alas, now comparatively

rare, being only found on a few secluded islands. Shortly after

I landed in New Zealand I was taken with a small party in a launch

to one of the few breeding places of the birds, a single islet in

the Hauraki Gulf. There was a small breeding colony in a cave,

the nests being made on the sloping sides of rock. The young

were almost full grown. In all there must have been about twenty

to thirty birds counting the young ones. Unfortunately many of

the adults had been maimed by the thoughtless wretches who

meander round the islands in the Gulf shooting at every sea bird.

Some had broken wings and others hanging legs. The birds are

very tame and had we have liked, we could have wiped out the

entire colony. We got within a few feet of the birds, which escaped

by diving through a hole at the end of the cave and coming out

into the open sea. This species is very sedentary, seldom

wandering very far from the spot where it first saw the light of

day; in fact its powers of flight are feeble at the best. At the

present rate it will not be long before this beautiful bird is

exterminated, for once a bird comes in competition with man and

his food supply, it stands no earthly chance, for then he has an

excuse to persecute it with the utmost vigour.


A description of the plumage would be too complicated and

would give no idea of the great beauty of the birds, as it differs

entirely from the ordinary Cormorants. It is much smaller than

the usual Cormorants, and has a slender beak; the head is

adorned with two crests, one on the front of the head and the

other on the nape, and in the breeding season white filomentous

plumes grow from various parts of the plumage.



