50 Alexander and Nicholls, The Little Penguin. [ist July 



A Study of Australian Specimens of the Little Pen^ 

 guin (Eudyptula minor, Forster). 

 By W. B. Alexander, M.A., and Dr. Brooke Nicholls. 



Introductory. 

 In The Emu, vol. xvii., p. ii8, one of us (Nicholls) gave an account 

 of the Penguin rookery on The Nobbies, Phillip Island, Western 

 Port, Victoria, and in concluding his paper stated that no attempt 

 had been made to describe or contrast the general coloration of 

 the specimens collected, but that he hoped to do so at a later 

 date. This work has now been carried out by us jointly at the 

 National Museum, Melbourne, through the kindness of the 

 Curator, Mr. J. A. Kershaw, F.E.S. In addition to the skins 

 obtained at Phillip Island by Nicholls, M'Lellan, and Tregellas, 

 now in the R.A.O.U. collection, we have carefully examined the 

 birds from New South Wales in the " H. L. White Collection," 

 birds from various parts of the Victorian coast and from Cat 

 Island, Bass Strait, in the National Museum, birds from Westera 

 Australia (lent by the Western Australian Museum), and a bird 

 from South Australia kindly lent by Capt. S. A. White. 

 Altogether, 60 skins were thus available to us for comparison, 

 including specimens from Cabbage-tree Island, Port Stephens, 

 New South Wales (about S. lat. 32° 40'), the most northerly 

 breeding-place of the species known on the east coast, and speci- 

 mens from Penguin Island, near Rockingham, Western Australia 

 (about S. lat. 32° 20'), the most northerly breeding-place known 

 on the west coast. Incidentally, it is worthy of remark that 

 these two northern limits of the species are almost in the same 

 latitude. 



Before stating the results arrived at, it may be well briefly to 

 outline the position on which it was hoped that light would be 

 thrown. For many years Australian ornithologists, following 

 Gould, considered that there were two species of small Penguins 

 - — the Little Penguin (£". minor) and the Fairy Penguin {E. 

 ttndina) — found on the Australian coast. The former was 

 supposed to be larger and lighter in colour ; the latter smaller and 

 darker. Mathews, in 1911, in his " Birds of Australia," challenged 

 this view, stating that in his opinion all the small Australian 

 Penguins belonged to one species, and we think that the study 

 by Nicholls of the birds on The Nobbies has furnished proof that he 

 was right in this contention, the minor form having been shown 

 to be the bird just before moulting, when it is fat and its feathers 

 have worn dull, whilst the undina form is the same bird freshly 

 moulted. 



Forster' s Aptenodytes minor was founded on birds from New 

 Zealand, and Mathews has shown that Austrahan birds are 

 separable from those from New Zealand, being characterized by 

 their white tails and lighter coloration. Hence, in his "Birds of 

 Australia " he used the name Eudyptula minor novcvhollandice for 

 the Australian sub-species, Spheniscus novce-hollandicc being the 



