Hutton. — On Majaqueus gequinoctialis. 177 



Art. XVI. — On Majaqueus aequinoctialis, from. Antipodes 



Island. 



By Captain F. W. Hutton, F.E.S. 



[Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 1st August, 1894.} 



Last December Mr. A. W. Bethune, of the colonial steamer 

 " Hiuemoa," presented to the Canterbury Museum a fine 

 specimen of the petrel Majaqueus cequinoctialis — known to 

 sailors as the " stinker " — which he had obtained at Antipodes 

 Island. The bird — which is a male — is entirely brownish- 

 black, except the chin, which is white; and Mr. Bethune 

 informs me that all the birds he saw were similar in plumage, 

 and none had any white markings on the face. The legs 

 and feet are black. The bill, when fresh, had the sides of the 

 upper mandible and the tubes blue, the culmen and unguis 

 black; the lower edge of the lower mandible was flesh-colour. 

 The following are its dimensions : Length, 21in.; wing, 16in.; 

 tail, 5iin.; bill, chord of culmen 2 - 2in., to gape 2-5in., height 

 - 55in. ; tarsus, 2-55in. ; middle toe, without claw 2 - 95in., with 

 claw 3'6in. The nests are in holes, made in the side of a 

 slope, which are hollowed out into a circular chamber at the 

 end. In this chamber the nest is raised several inches from 

 the bottom, leaving a circular ditch round it. A single egg is 

 laid. The old birds were sitting on fresh-laid eggs in Decem- 

 ber, while in the following May the young birds were fully 

 fledged, although still in their nests. These young birds had 

 the plumage in every respect similar to that of the adult. 



Art. XVII. — Notes onNew Zealand Land Planarians. Parti. 



By Arthur Dendy, D.Sc, Professor of Biology in the Can- 

 terbury College, University of New Zealand. 



[Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 1st August, 1894.] 



Up to the present year the number of species of land plana- 

 rians described, or even recorded, from New Zealand has been 

 extremely small, amounting only to three, one of which was 

 described by Professor Moseley, and two by Captain Hutton. 

 Thanks to the assistance of many friends who have collected 

 and forwarded specimens I am now in a position to bring the 

 total number of species found in New Zealand up to twenty. 

 Of these, twelve appear to be new to science. Eighteen of 

 12 



