KING PENGUIN. 13 



than the lower owing to the encroaching frontal feathers into the nasal groove ; 

 the culmen ridge flattened, the latericorns not laterally expanded ; the nostrils 

 obsolete ; the tip decurved but not strongly hooked. The under mandibular rami 

 long and divergent, the interramal space feathered. There is no crest. The flipper 

 is very long and narrow. The tail consists of twenty narrow feathers, forming a 

 rounded wedge, not much exceeding the upper tail-coverts. The feet are stout and 

 typical. 



Coloration blue above and white below with a dark throat and yellow neck 

 markings. 



8. Aptenodytes patagonica. KING PENGUIN. 



[Aptenodytes patagonica Miller, " Var. Subj. Nat. Hist., pt. iv., pi. 23, 1778 " : Falkland 

 Islands. Extra-limital.] 



Not previously figured in Australian works. 



Aptenodytes patagonica halli Mathews, Birds Austr., Vol. I., pt. 5, p. 272, Oct. 31st, 1911 : 

 Macquarie Island. 



DISTRIBUTION. Tasmania (visitor). One occurrence recorded by Hall, Emu, Vol. IX., 

 p. 250, 1910, at Maria Island (but specimen not preserved), and is listed on this authority. 



Adult male. General colour of the upper-surface bluish-grey, the feathers dusky 

 at the base with black shaft-streaks and greyish -white spots more or less surrounded 

 with black ; the shaft-streaks more pronounced on the upper tail-coverts ; the 

 sides of the neck greyish-white ; head, sides of the face, throat, and a line on each 

 side of the breast black, with a greenish gloss on the throat, a patch of orange on the 

 hinder part of the head, which is continued in a narrow line and joined to the some- 

 what deeper-coloured orange of the fore-neck ; remainder of the under-surface 

 creamy-white, becoming pure white on the lower-abdomen ; flippers dark grey 

 above, under-surface white, margined and tipped with bluish-grey ; maxilla and 

 tip of mandible black ; base of mandible sealing-wax red, shading off into lead-grey 

 towards the tips ; iris brown ; feet black. Total length 38 inches ; culmen 122 mm., 

 flipper 280, middle toe and claw 112. 



Adult female. Similar to the adult male, but the colour on the bill not so 

 pronounced. 



Immature. As the adult but less brilliant in coloration and with a weaker, 

 wholly blackish bill. 



Nestling. Covered with dusky-brown down, shortest about the face. 



Nest. No nest is made, the egg being placed on the bare ground. 



Egg. Clutch, one ; ground-colour pale greenish -white, covered wholly or in 

 part with a thin calcareous matter ; tapering suddenly from the diameter to the tip ; 

 axis 104 to 108, diameter 75 to 76. 



Breeding -season . March . 



Distribution and forms. Sub-antarctic regions of the southern hemisphere. 

 Three subspecies have been indicated : A. p. patagonica Miller, from South Georgia, 

 Falkland Islands, etc. ; A. p. longirostris Scopoli, from Kerguelen Island, and Crozets, 

 by its darker blue coloration and the larger amount of blue on the under side of the 

 flipper ; and A. p. halli Mathews, from Macquarie Island, by its paler coloration 

 above and less blue on the under side of the flipper, and the feathers on the inside of 

 the tarsus being white, not blue as in the typical form, as in the former. 



SUBCLASS EUOENITHES. : " g MS 



Having eliminated the two preceding subclasses, comprising a few birds, all 

 the rest of existing avian forms are referred to the present subclass. Twenty-five 

 orders are recognised, of which six do not occur in Australia, viz., Apteryges, Tinami, 



