88 Transactions. — Zoology. 



bird's feet. One of these specimens also exhibited a decidedly 

 green tinge before being washed. 



Mergus australis, Hombr. et Jacq. (The Auckland Islands 

 Merganser.) 



I have much pleasure in now exhibiting the young of one 

 of the rarest of our endemic species, the Merganser of the 

 Auckland Islands. The bird exhibited is apparently about a 

 week or ten days old. It is covered with thick, long, and 

 somewhat glossy down. The upper part and sides of the head, 

 the hindneck, and the entire upper surface and sides of the 

 body, dark olive-brown ; throat and foreneck and spot under 

 each eye, bright rufous, fading away towards the breast ; 

 under -surface yellowish - white ; wings dark olive-brown, 

 marked along the outer edge and longitudinally on the under- 

 surface with yellowish- white. Bill very dark olive, shaded 

 with brown on the ridge, the terminal shield on both mandibles 

 reddish-brown with a polished surface ; legs and feet dull 

 olive-brown, paler on the toes, the interdigital webs darker, 

 and the claws yellowish-brown. 



It is very desirable that specimens of this interesting form 

 in the adult state should be obtained for our museums before 

 it is too late. Although the " Hinemoa " makes periodical 

 visits to the Auckland Islands, its only known habitat, and 

 eager search is made, the bird is scarcely ever seen ; but in 

 the absence of the natural enemies, which abound elsewhere, 

 there is no reason why the species should become extinct. 

 There is a good specimen iii the Colonial Museum, and, I 

 think, another in the Otago Museum. The British Museum 

 collection contains a pair; there is another pair in the Im- 

 perial Museum at Vienna, and a single specimen in the 

 University Museum at Cambridge. Besides those in my own 

 collection this completes, as far as I am aware, the known 

 record of this interesting species. 



It will be noticed that the toothed character of the man- 

 dibles is well developed even in the nestling. 



Eudyptes pachyrhynchus, Gray. (The Crested Penguin.) 



At the end of February I saw a nestling of this species 

 partly fledged. The down of the upper surface sooty-black, 

 with a brownish tinge ; that of the under-parts white, except- 

 ing a band of the dark colour, which crosses the foreneck under 

 the chin. 



Eudyptes chrysolophus, Brandt. (The Eoyal Penguin.) 

 I am able now to give the measurements of this species, 



taken from specimens in the flesh, from Macquarie Island. 

 Adtdt Male. — Length, 29in. ; extent, 23-5in. ; length of 



