NATURE NOTES

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 51, 28 August 1926, Page 15

NATURE NOTES

ABOUT SHAGS

BIRDS WITH A HISTORY

(By E. H. D. Stidolph, 8.A.0.TJ.)

Shags are familiar birds in New Zealand, as in most countries of the world. They may be diagnosed as diving birds, with tho four toes webbed, and with moderate wings. In size—there are some thirty-six species—they vary from that of a goose to that of a tui. The bill is medium to short, with the tip hooked, the neck and body are long, and the thighs are prominent. Cormorants, as these birds are called in other countries, do not walk as awkwardly as often represented. They stand and move in a semi-erect posture. Host species perch freely, and jump about among the boughs with considerable case. In the water they swim low, with tho tail awash, and dive excellently from the surface. The flight is direct and powerful; in starting off tho water they rise heavily and strike the water with both feet.together, in order to gain sufficient momentum to launch into tho air. The entire neck is extended in flight. Cormorants Are rather silent birds, but occasionally give forth a harsh croaking sound, usually when disturbed at their breeding haunts. In disposition they are rather sociable when breeding, but quarrelsome, fierce, wary, and intelligent.

In spite of their usually unattractive appearance, shags are birds with an interesting history. Most people are familiar with a representation of a fishery with the help of cormorants conducted by the Chinese; but it is not so generally known that a similar method was once practised in England. "It is the custom in England," wrote an old-time ornithologist, "to train cormorants to catch fish. While 'conveying the birds to the fishing-ground the fishermen keep the heads and eyes of the birds covered to prevent them from being alarmed. When they have reached the rivers, they take off the hoods, and having first tied a leather strap loosely around the lower part of the neck, that the birds may be unable to swallow down what fishes they catch, throv them into the water. They immediately set to work and pursue the fish beneath them with marvello-s rapidity. When they have caught ono they rise to the surface, ".nd having first pinched it with their beaks, swallow it as far as the strap permits, and renew the chase until they have caught from live to six each. On being called to return to their masters' fist, they obey with alacrity, and bring up, one by one, tho fish they have swallowed, injured no further than that they are slightly crushed. The- fishing being brought to an end, the birds are removed from tha neighbourhood of the water, tho strap is untied, and a few of the captured fish, thrown to them as their share of the booty, are dexterously caught before they; touch the ground." Shags are found in almost all parts of the world. New Zealand is particularly rich in. the number of species. The most conspicuous, the most abundant, and the best known of New Zealand species is the large black shag, a bird of almost cosmopolitan distribution, occurring everywhere except in South America. A nesting-place of this species was recently visited by the writer. The nests—large bulky affairs —were placed in beech trees, up to four nests being placed in one tree. They were built of beech twigs and lined with raupo stems. Some nests contained eggs—three to four in number, pale bluish white in colour, and about two and a half inches in length, small in relation to the bird's size. Other nests were occupied by young birds in various stages of development, from the repulsive-looking helpless, naked, newly-hatched birds to fully-fledged youngsters just ready to leave the nests. The young birds were very clamorous and called incessantly "keer-re, keer-re," a note bearing a resemblance to the cry of the weka.

In New Zealand black shags frequent all parts of the country, being equally at home on the coast, on the riveri, or on the lakes and lagoons. In the North Auckland district, a smaller bird, known as the little black shag, occurs. It is not reported elsewhere in New Zealand, but occurs in Borneo, New Guinea, Australia, and Tasmania. A more beautiful species, most abundant in the Northern and Southern portions of the Dominion, is the pied shag, greenish black above and glistening white on the underparts. It is almost entirely an inhabitant of the coast, bat occasionally is found on watercourses. Mr. H. Guthrie Smith found this bird breeding on. a sheltered inlet, excellently sheltered from the prevailing westerly gales. . The nests are built in ironwood trees, which stretched out far over the water. The.neste appear to be based on the older structures of previous years, and season by season to be merely repaired. The qgga are blue, which colour later changes to a dirty brown. A smaller species, the white-throated shag, is generally distributed on New Zealand in land waters, and with the pied species occurs in Australia. The writer found this small bird breeding in a remote mountain gorge, the nests being placed in karamu trees jutting out over a precipitous cliff. In such localities the bird is usually safe from human interference. A particularly handsome species is the spotted Bhag, strictly v. coastal bird, occurring on the coast of Canterbury and Westland, in the South Island, and in the Hauraki Gulf, in the North. The head is ornamented with two crests, and the grey back with black spots. It associates in largo flocks, and frequents the open sea, subsisting on fish and crustaceans. It breeds on the high shelving rocks on the coast or within the sheltered arms of the sea, the nests being arranged in successive tiers of considerable extent. An even more handsome, but closely allied species, occurs at the Chatham Islands." The Marlborough Sounds harbour a distinctive species, known as the rough-faced Bhag, and Stewart Island claims the bronze shag. Pitt Island, in the Chatham group, and Macquarie and Auckland Islands possess shags almost identical with the roughfaced species, and the Stewart, Campbell, Auckland, and Bounty Islands each are inhabited with a bird, almost identical on each island.