NATURE NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20868, 9 May 1931, Page 1 (Supplement)

NATURE NOTES.

BLACK SHAG'S CRIME.

Bi* J. DRUMMOND, F.L.S., F.Z.S

Writing with a lifelong experience of New Zealand birds and as a close student of their habits, the Hon G J. Garland, M.L.G., slates that the black shag feeds on eels, but does not live by eels alone, and he places ••it and its relative, the large pied shag, in the front rank of the shags as far as aggressiveness and destruction of fish are concerned. Below the surface of the water, Mr. Garland slates, the black shag swims rapidly, taking everything within its reach. Mr. Garland has dissected many black shags. In the morning hours he found in their crops very little food, often none. In the afternoon and toward the night, he found that they had had a mixed diet. There were flounders from the sizo of a sixpence up to three inches long, sprats of different sizes, and young mullet, as well as eels.

Mr. Garland says he agrees with Mr. W. H. Hudson, the delightful English naturalist and writer, that black shags' homes are not pleasant places to visit, and that their chicks are unattractive, to put it mildly. The black shag is almost cosmopolitan. In the Old Country it is called the cormorant, a title derived from the French cormoran, which was taken from the Latin corvus marinus, sea-raven. It is the emblem of gluttony; as the dictionaries explain, " a greedy fellow, a glutton." Mr. Hudson was a devoted lover of birds, but ho is quite frank about the black shag, " a big, sombre, ugly bird, heavy and awkward in hi 3 motions out of the water, and when breeding disgusting in his habits." To mitigate this heavy censure, Mr. Hudson wrote: " He improves on closer acquaintance. He may bo easily tamed, and he makes an intelligent and somelimes very amusing pet, and is capable of being trained to catch fish for his keeper."

Taking up tho same fair attitude, Mr. Garland states: —"The chicks are not pleasant to look upon. Tho nests often are built in trees overhanging salt water. Year after year "they are repaired and occupied, and they have a very evil smell. Still, it should be remembered that all shags catch and eat living creatures; unlike the hawk and the vulture, they do not eat carrion. That, at least, is my experience, and I have dissected many big black shags, large pied shags, little pied shags, little black shags, and whitethroated shags, all members of the cormorant family."

Black shags can distend their throats amazingly. Eels eighteen and twenty inches long, it is reported, have been found in a black shag's stomach and throat. Mr. Garland's experience is that from one hundred and fifty to two hundred and twenty fish of different sorts usually may be found in a shag's crop, especially in the spring, when fish are plentiful and when the shags have nesting operations in hand. The nests, as described by Mr. Garland, are inaccessible, are two feet or more wide, and ten to twelve inches deep. The favourite site is a prong of a branch. Sticks and twigs are used for the frame. Rushes and fine pieces of raupo are used, and there is a lining of grass and moss.

From two to four eggs are laid, A chick places its head inside the mouth of its mother, and takes partially digested food. Two clutches often are hatched from the same nest in the same season. The first clutch appears about the early weeks of July; the second from about the end of October to the second week in November. Mr. Garland never was able to discover definitely whether male and female took part in nest-building, bulj believes that both do so. He has seen one of a pair go up to the nest with a stick, a twig or other material. After placing it in a satisfactory position, the shag departed. A few minutes later the same shag, or another one, returned with more material. He never saw two shags at work on a nest at the same time. He was told that as many as eight eggs had been found in a nest. His own observations never disclosed more than four; sometimes there were three, often only two. Young shags often do not reach maturity; dead chicUs may be found on rocks beneath trees used as rookeries. .

" Colonies of shags occupy tho same trees, and tho same nests, for years," Mr. Garland adds. " They seem to bo attached to particular localities, like some of our sea-birds. There is evidence of this on the Littlo Barrier Island, our best bird sanctuary, and I do not think that a stoat or a weasel could get to one of the nests, as the adult shag would deal promptly with the enemy. Even if a wild cat attacked the young the whole colony would unite in home defence with wings, bills and claws. Tho shag is a brave and determined defender. A stab on the hand with its bill teaches a per son to givo it a wide berth. Mr. A. E. Hefford, Chief Inspector of Fisheries, in his annual report, is quito fair to the black shag, but he should not make open war on the shags until a measure of their guilt is decided by a jury of unprejudiced scientific men.".

Nobody in New Zealand seems to have considered the black shag as a pet. English naturalists ure more interested in this bird's affairs, and not so ready to demand its destruction because it takes trout. lii England black shags have been watched returning from their fishing. They have been seen sitting with their wings half extended, drying themselves in tlio wind, the preliminary part of their toilet. When their plumage is sufficiently dry to retain oil, they squeeze a little from an oil-gland and dress their feathers. A black shag named " Old Izaak," after Izaak Walton, in allusion to its skill as a fisher, did this so deliberately that people watched the oil as it was squeezed out. After the oil had been appiled with the bill it was rubbed in with the throat.

Most fish-eating birds, including shags and kingfishers, swallow their prey head first. A particularly gluttonous black shag, bolting its meal, tried to swallow a fish tail first, but the fins prevented the fish from going down, and the shag had to follow tho custom. A large fish does not disappear into a shag's stomach at once. It goes down gradually, as it becomes digested, powerful digestive juices operating on the food. A black shag caught in the English Channel became very friendly with its captors. Taken ashore and liberated, it followed a servant, and, after having been fed, sat on a stool putting its plumage in order. It walked into tho library, settled down quietly by the fireside, and resumed its nreening. From then on it was absolutely tame, never going far from the house. An effort has been made in England to revive tho pastime of fishing with black shags. A few still are kept for the purposo. They catch all sorts of fish, also waterrats, probing into every rat-hole under every shelving bank t