518 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



surface white ; breast and under surface silvery white ; bill 

 reddish brown ; feet greyish white. 



The female is said to differ in having the yellow feathers 

 over the eye shorter, or not prolonged into a crest. 



Genus EUDYPTULA, Bonaparte. 



The members of this genus are the most diminutive in size 

 of the entire family. Two species inhabit the southern parts 

 of Australia and Tasmania. 



Sp. 669. EUDYPTULA MINOR. 



Little Penguin. 



Aptenodytes minor, Forst. Comm. Goett., torn. iii. p. 147. 

 Little Pemjuin, Lath. Gen. Syn., vol. vi. p. 573^ pi. 103. 

 Spheniscus minor, Temm. Man. d'Orn., torn. i. p. 113. 

 Aptenodyta minor, Vieill. Ency. Meth. Orn., part i. p. 68, pi. 17. fig. 1. 

 Eudyptula minor, Bonap. Compt. Rend, de VAcad. Sci., torn. xli. 



1856. 

 Korora, Aborigines of New Zealand. 



Spheniscus minor, Gould, Birds of Australia, fol., vol. vii. pi. 84. 



This species is very abundant all round Tasmania, in Bass's 

 Straits, and on the south coast of Australia generally, where 

 it frequents those parts of the sea that are favourable to its 

 habits and mode of life, and where the depth of the water is 

 not too great to prevent its diving to the bottom. It is also 

 often seen in the deep bays and harbours, and some distance 

 up the great rivers, but never I believe in fresh water ; seas 

 abounding in small islands, whose sides are not too precipitous 

 for it to ascend for the purpose of breeding, being the local- 

 ities most frequently resorted to. It is so numerous on nearly 

 all the low islands in Bass's Straits, from September to 

 January, that any reasonable number of the birds and their 

 eggs may be procured without the slightest difficulty. 



