Weliimjton Philosophical Society. 739 



with points, and was replete with interest. In the observations he was 

 about to offer he would confine himself to the zoological aspect of the 

 question, and, leaving the mammals — the whales and the seals — alone for 

 the present, he would limit his remarks to the birds. And before pro- 

 ceeding further he would call attention to the collection of albatroses on 

 the table, ten in number, representing six species at different ages, as he 

 would have frequent occasion to refer to them in the course of his re- 

 marks. He explained that they were part of a collection which Sir 

 James Hector was forming in the Museum, which was to comprise all 

 the known albatroses of the Southern Hemisphere, and that these were 

 to be grouped together according to the method pursued in tlie British 

 Museum. Another case would contain all the known penguins in this 

 hemisphere ; and the other birds would be similarly arranged in natural 

 groups. Directing attention to the mounting of the albatroses on exhibi- 

 tion, Sir Walter mentioned that two of them had been set up by Mr. Cul- 

 lingford, an expert taxidermist in England, and the fact that the others 

 set up by the local taxidermist (^Mr. Yuill) compared so well with these 

 reflected very great credit on his skill. The geographical distribution of 

 the various species of albatros (as also of penguins and other oceanic 

 birds) among these islands was a very curious feature. Speaking gene- 

 rally, each island or group of islands has its own albatros, its own pen- 

 guin, its own cormorant, and its own set of small petrels. Thus, the 

 Snares are inhabited by that beautiful albatros, or mollymawk, with a 

 bright-yellow strip along the ridge of the bill — the bird which it had been 

 our habit to call Diomedca cnlininata till it was differentiated by our 

 great authority on petrels, Mr. Osbert Salvin, and named by Rothschild 

 Diomedea bulleri in compliment to himself. The Auckland Islands are 

 the resort, in countless numbers, of the wandering albatros (Diomedea 

 exulans), except that there is a small colony of another species about 

 which he would have something to say later on. Antipodes Island is the 

 home of the beautiful yellow- billed albatros (Diomedea melanophrys) . 

 Campbell Island is the great breeding-place of the royal albatros, originally 

 described by the speaker under the name of Diomedea regia, — the noblest 

 member of the whole group. Curiously enough, although this is the 

 recognised resort of that fine species, there is a small colony of them on 

 the Auckland Islands, living apart from the wandering albatros, and 

 breeding at a somewhat later date. The royal albatros, as he 

 explained, is distinguishable from Diomedea exulans by its larger size, 

 by its white head and neck, without any patch on the vertex or 

 crown, by the larger amount of white on the wings, and by having 

 jet-black eyelids, those of the other species being purple. Then 

 we come to the Bounties. Here the dominant species is the beau- 

 tiful mollymawk now known as Diomedca salvini, but confounded for a 

 long time v;ith the shy albatros (Diomedea cauta) of the Australian seas. 

 What species of albatros it is that inhabits ^Macquarie Island he had not 

 been able to determine with certainty, no specimens having been brought 

 from that locality. The sooty albatros, whicii really belongs to another 

 genus, IS more diffuse in its range, a few pairs turning up from time to 

 time on each of the groups of islands. So again with the penguins. On 

 the Snares we have the thick-billed penguin (Eudupfes pachyrhynchus), 

 the same as that frequenting the coasts of New Zealand. On the Auck- 

 land Islands we have the large and handsome Endyptes antipodum. 

 Antipodes Island is the home of the fine species which he had dedicated 

 to Dr. Sclater (Endyptes sclateri), and the smaller and well-known 

 Etidyptes chrysocome. On Campbell Island we appear to have the latter 

 alone, and on the Bounties probably both of them. On Macquarie 

 Island, on the other hand, there are four species not met with elsewhere. 

 First of all, there is the king-penguin (Aptenodytcs longirostris), repre- 

 sented in tens of thousands in the beautiful enlarged photographs exhibited 



