EEPORT ON THE SPHENISCID^. 



289 



The fact that the Challenger officers seldom noticed these birds more than 40 or 50 

 miles from land ^ or ice, seems to show that having once adopted a residence they are 

 very far from being addicted to those migratory habits which their peculiar structure and 

 mode of life seem so well adapted to encourage. 



With regard to the distribution in time of the Spheniscidse, we at present know 

 almost nothing, our knowledge of fossil forms being limited to a humerus, coracoid, and 

 tarso-metatarsal bone, which were discovered in the Eocene formation of New Zealand. - 

 The metatarsal bone has been described by Prof Huxley,^ who established the genus 

 Palceeudyptes for the reception of the bird of whose skeleton it formed a part. It apparently 

 belonged to the skeleton of a bird closely allied to the genus Eudyptes of the present day, 

 but evidently of much larger size than any living species of that genus. If the nature of 

 the deposit from which this fragment was excavated has been correctly interpreted, it 

 shows that the family of Spheniscidse is one of great antiquity, and that it had even at 

 that time deviated so far from the primitive avian stem as to present those modifications 

 in structure which have remained unaltered down to the present time. This fact goes 

 far to explain the difficulty which every one must acknowledge in attempting to allot to 

 the Spheniscidae their proper place in any classification of recent birds, a difficulty which 

 will only disappear as the geological record is more fully deciphered, and the intermediate 

 forms which at one time undoubtedly connected the Penguins witli the primitive avian 

 stem have been brought to light. 



Passing now to the subdivision of the Spheniscidse, it appears from the foregoing pages 

 that tlie various species which I have examined may be grouped together into the three 

 genera, Spheniscus, Eudyptes, and Aptenodytes, as shown in the table. 



Family. 



SPHEXISCID.E, 



Genus. 

 Spheniscus 



Eudyptes 

 Apienodytes 



Species. 



demersus 



mendieulus 



minor 



( chrysocome 

 ( chrysolopihus? 



Variety. 



magellanicus. 



Eudyptes eJirysoco7ne, from Tristan. 

 Ewlyptes chrysocome, from Falklands. 

 Eudyjjtes chrysocome, from Kerguelen. 



{ 



longirnstris 

 tcmiiatus 



Of the various members enumerated above of the genus Spheniscus, it aj)pears to me 

 that Spheniscus demersus and Spheniscus magellanicus ought to be regarded as two 

 varieties of one and the same species, while Spheniscus mendicidus and Spheniscus minor 

 are undoubtedly distinct species. Spheiiiscus minor is moreover possessed of several 

 cranial characters which approximate it to Eudyptes. 



^ Sclater, Challenger Reports, Zoology, part viii. p. 132. 

 2 Hector, J., Trans. New Zealand Inst., vol. v. p. 438, 1872. 

 ^ Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc, vol. .xv. p. 670. 



