574 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



at all uncommon. There seemed to be two varieties : one, 

 slightly the larger, was reddish in colour ; the other was 

 black." This bird is considered by Sir Walter Buller to be a 

 local variety of II. philippensis, and I wished very much to 

 procure specimens of the two kinds mentioned in the above 

 quotation. Not a sign of either was seen by us, and I could not 

 hear from any of the party on the island that any had been seen. 

 Professor Scott mentions that teal were occasionally seen 

 on the lakes. I could not hear that any had been killed, but 

 I saw the common grey duck (.4. superciliosa) on the coast, 

 and on some small inland lakes. These birds have a very 

 wide range, but I do not think they have been reported from 

 Macquarie Island before. 



Most of my notes were made at Lusitania ; but I was on 

 the North Head for a few hours on the day we left, and there 

 I noticed, on a bare wind-swept surface of clay, great quanti- 

 ties of rounded stones exactly like the moa gizzard-stones 

 found in New Zealand, but smaller. These have probably 

 accumulated in the course of time from the birds destroyed by 

 the skuas and nellies, the remains of which are found all over 

 the surface of the island, ejected by these offal- feeders. At 

 the narrow neck of land connecting the North Head with the 

 mainland I saw a large heap of the bones of the sea-elephants, 

 which had been gathered together with a view of taking them 

 to New Zealand for bone-crushmg. Near the heap was a 

 stretch of shifting sand, which revealed evidence that this was 

 the site of the large rookery of king penguins seen here by 

 Bennett in 1815, since entirely destroyed. Amongst the 

 bones I found two perfect skulls of a very large species of 

 albatros. These I specially valued, as we were unable to 

 verify the statement that a species of albatros breeds on 

 Macquarie Island, or to say what the species was. The 

 skulls, together with a valuable collection of other specimens, 

 were swept overboard on our homeward passage. 



Of the mutton-birds frequenting the islands, one species, 

 which we only saw on the wing whilst off the island, seemed 

 to be new. 



The list of birds will stand somewhat as follows : — 



Platycercus. Probably extinct. 



Larus dominicanus. 



Stercorarms antarcticus (skua gull). 



Sterna antarctica. 



Sterna frontalis. 



Rallus macquariensis = R. philippensis. Not seen or 

 heard of. 



Ocydromus. Introduced. 



Phalacrocorax carunculatus. 



Diomedca ...(?) 



