180 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



some primary quills and coverts, are white. In the tail one or 

 two webs and coverts also are black in parts. The white is 

 encroaching on the throat, and slighdy on the chin. Other parts 

 are blue, excepting the tail under-coverts, which are normally 

 white. With the exception of this one patch of white all should 

 be blue and black. Bill and feet red. 



Buller mentions an albino bird in New Zealand. 



728, Phalacrocorax (Graculus) melanoleucus, Vieill., Little 

 Cormorant. 



In National Museum collection, Melbourne. 



Uniformly white, displacing the black and white. 



Such a specimen shows the complete absence of the pigment 

 known as " zoomelanin," and, on account of the absence of such 

 black particles in the interstices of the molecules of the feathers, 

 the appearance is white. 

 753. Anas superciliosa, Gmel., Black Duck. 



{a.) In collection of Mr. A. Coles, Melbourne. 



General plumage dirty cream, but with usual blue on 

 wing. Superciliary, loral, and cheek stripes brown instead of 

 black ; throat normal ; edges of contour feathers less distinct 

 than in usual plumage ; primary quill coverts normal. 



(&.) In National Museum collection, Melbourne. 



Two specimens closely marked as last, though one is rather 

 fainter than the other. 



Buller has recorded an abnormal specimen from New Zealand. 

 755. Nettion (Anas) gibberifrons, S. Miill., Grey Teal. 



{a.) In collection of Mr. G. A. Keartland, Melbourne. 



Semi-albino. General plumage creamy, with an indistinct scaly 

 surface from breast to tail, which is the faint representative of the 

 distinct crescentic appearance of the correct plumage. The dense 

 pigment dorsally is displaced by light brown, varying in intensity 

 as with the normally-plumaged bird. The feathers are margined 

 with cream. Metallic green does not show on the secondaries, 

 and the black is less dense, or, rather, more brown. 



As the sex of this specimen is not given, it might be a female of 

 the Teal, N. castaneum, Eyton, as when Count Salvadori was 

 classifying the Chenomorphse for the " British Museum Catalogue," 

 in 1895, h^ could see no difference between these two species in 

 their normal plumage. 



(6.) At Swan Hill there was, in 1897, a skin similar to the fore- 

 going. 



Buller mentions a similar case of divergence in New Zealand. 



765. Drom^us irroratus, Bartl., Spotted Emu. 



Mr. J. P. Rogers, of Fitzroy River, North-Western Australia, 

 informs me that the aboriginals of the district report that a white 

 emu exists inland, which would probably be of this species. 



