and occasional contributors), let this enraptured gentleman tell us the equivalent 

 destruction occasioned by his institution last year. A little louder, please! 

 About sixtv thousand? Yes, thank vou; that will do. 



PENGUINS 



By. R. S. Sutherland, R. A. O. U. 



Pui/segur Point, Invercargdl, New Zealand 



Much has been written about penguins, but, as showing the truth of the 

 old adage, "Far off fields are always green," the major portion of the information 

 relates to the penguins of the far southern regions, and deals with birds that very 

 few will see save as stuffed specimens in museums. At short intervals articles 

 and books appear dealing minutely with the Emperor and Adelie Land Penguins, 

 and it is rarely that the local species are even mentioned and, truth to tell, many 

 are unaware of the fact that penguins of any sort are to be found in Australia, 

 and that New Zealand is now recognized as the original home, as well as the 

 center of dispersion of these quaint birds. Of the eighteen species of penguins, 



CRESTED PENGUIN. YOUNG OF C. pachyrhynchus, 5 Eudyptula minor, BLUE PENGUIN. 



Coal Island, N. Z. WEEKS OLD. TAKEN AT PRES- SEALERS CREEK, N. Z. BY 



Photo by R. S. Sutherland, Esq. ERVATION INLET, N. Z. R. S. SUTHERLAND 



which are classed in six genera, Australia has three species representative of two 

 genera, and New Zealand has ten species of five genera. Apart from this, fossil 

 remains of a giant penguin have also been unearthed in New Zealand, which 

 apart from the great size, differs only in the greater relative length of the wing 

 bones, from the present existing varieties. The fossils are of a bird which stood 

 upwards of five feet in height, and in life, the bird was exceeded in size amongst 

 the penguins only by the Seymour Island Giant Penguin, which stood slightly 

 over six feet, and of which large quantities of fossil remains were obtained at 

 that island in 1902. 



Bearing in mind the greater relative length of wing to body, one must 

 suppose that the nearest approach to the ancestral form is the Yellow-eyed 

 Penguin, (Jlei/adi/ptes anlipodiutn). As the name implies, the most striking 

 point about this penguin is the eye, which even to the pupil is entirely light 

 yellow. The bird is about twenty-nine inches in length, (tip of bill to tip of 

 tail), with a flipper of about seven inches. In color it is slaty grey above and 

 white on the breast and including the throat and chin. Isolated grey feathers 

 sometimes appear among the white feathers of the breast. This must be taken 

 as a reversion to a primitive form, for it cannot be taken as a link connecting 



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