Vol.Xvlii.-| Alexander and ^101101.1.%, The Little Penguin. ^1 



name given by Stephens to Latham's description of the Wathng 

 drawing of a bird from Port Jackson. Mathews added (" Birds 

 of Australia," vol. i., p. 285) : — " The few specimens from each 

 locality I have studied have not allowed me to designate any sub- 

 species of the Australian bird." In the same year (1911) in 

 which he wrote this, however, in his " List of the Birds of Austraha," 

 published in Novitates Zoologies, vol. xviii., he separated the 

 Western Australian bird under the name of E. minor woodwardi, 

 stating that it differed from E. m. novcehollimdicB in its grey-blue 

 coloration above, and the flipper being grey and not blue. The 

 type was a bird from Sandy Hook Island, in the Recherche Archi- 

 pelago, on the south coast of Western Austraha, collected by 

 Mr. J. T. Tunney in November, 1904. 



In his " List of the Birds of Austraha," published in 191 3, 

 Mathews retained this sub-species from Western Australia, 

 limited E. m. novcehollandicB to birds from New South Wales, and 

 used Gould's name, itndina, as a sub-specific name for a third 

 Australian race, E. in. iindina, whose range is given as Tasmania, 

 Victoria, and South Australia. 



Material Studied. 



The 60 specimens studied by us may be classified as follows : — 



1. Nestlings in down. — One from Cabbage-tree Island, New 

 South Wales, collected in September, and one from Cat Island, 

 Bass Strait, collected in December. Of these, the former, which is 

 the younger, is dark chocolate brown, whilst the latter is rather 

 paler. 



2. Yoiiiig birds, partly in down, partly feathered. — Three from 

 Cabbage-tree Island, New South Wales, collected in January ; 

 four from Phillip Island, Victoria, collected in March ; two from 

 Tollgate Island, New South Wales, collected in Septeml^er ; and 

 two from Cat Island, Bass Strait, collected in December. The 

 down on these birds is light chocolate-brown above and white 

 below. In some birds the down on the throat is smoky-brown, 

 in others yellowish. This difference can evidently not be used 

 in separating sub-species, since some birds from New South Wales 

 show one character and some the other. The down is lost first 

 from the breast and lower back, and the loss progresses forwards, 

 the down remaining longest above the flippers and on the head. 

 The fresh feathers on these birds are precisely similar in colour 

 and form and present the same variation in colour in different 

 specimens as is found in moulting or freshly-moulted adults. 



3. Adult birds moulting. — One female from Phillip Island, Vic- 

 toria, collected in March. 



4. Birds freshly moulted (" undina " stage). — Four from Phillip 

 Island, Victoria (one S, one immature S, two $), collected in 

 March ; one from the Coorong, South Austraha {S), collected in 

 March ; one from Mordialloc, Victoria (immature S), collected in 

 April ; one from Penguin Island, Western Australia, collected in 

 December. 



