VESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



ORDER IMPENNE5: PENGUINS. 



1007 



738. — Catai'.rhactes chrysocome, Forstcr. — (668) 

 CRESTED PENGUIN. 



Figure. — Gould : Birds of Australia, fol., vol. vii., pi. 83. 



Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. xxvi., p. 635. 



Previous Deicri^tions of Eggs. — Buller : Birds of New Zealand (1873), 

 vol. ii., p. 2g3 (18S8) ; Verrill : Trans. Connect Ac, vol. ix., 

 p 458 (1895): Hall: Ibis, p. 32 (:goo). 



Geograjjhical Distribution. — Coasts of New South Wales, Victoria, 

 South and West Australia and Tasmania ; also New Zealand and islands 

 to the south, TeiTa del Fuego, Falkland Islands, South Georgia, Tristan 

 da Cunhn, Cape of Good Hope, Prince Edward I.sland, Marion Island, 

 Crozet Islands, Kerguelen's Land, and St. Paul's Island. 



Nest. — Sometimes trampled tiissock or collected shingle, but usually 

 the bare gi-ound or rock. 



Eggs. — Clutch, two; roimd in form, more compressed at one end; 

 textiu-e of shell coarse ; surface without gloss ; colom-, bluish or greenish- 

 white, with hard coating of lime and occasionally lime nodules. Dimen- 

 sions in inches of two proper clutches: A (1st egg) 2-35 x 1'9, (2nd eg^ 

 2-.56 X 1-98 ; B (1st egg) 2-49 x 1-85, (2nd egg) 2-55 x 1-92. 



Observations. — -Tlie true homes of this handsome yellow-crested 

 Penguin are the desolate islands of the Southern Ocean, such as 

 Macquarie Island, which it shares with the multittides of Xing and 

 Royal Penguins, Kerguelen's Land, South Georgia, and other places. 



However, a few individuals occasionally reach the Tasmanian and 

 southern coast of AustrEiIia. Tliere are several skins of the Crested 

 Peng^iin in the Hobart Museum which were taken in Tasmania. During 

 the expedition of the Field Natm-alists' Club of Victoria to Bass Strait, 

 1887. a Crested Penguin was captured alive among the rocks on King 

 Island. I have i-ecorded its occurrence in Western Australia, where 

 one was caught close to Hamelin Harbour, near Cape Leeuwin. 



The birds are called Rock Hoppers because of .their manner of 

 hopping from rock to rock, as if their legs were tied together. The 

 description of a bird is: Head, neck, back, and sides, black; over each 

 eye is a stripe of pale yellow feathers, which are lengthened into a crest 

 behind (hence the name crested) ; under surface silverv-white ; an 

 imposing creatiu-c, standing about 2 feet 3 inches high. 



A fine pair of eggs in my collection of the Crested Penguin is 

 from Macquarie Island, where the bird is locallv known as the Victoria 

 Penguin, and where these birds commence to arrive in crowds about the 

 beginning of November. Some eggs are laid by the middle of that 



