them with the South American varieties, in which the breast is invariably spotted; 

 for while the Yellow-eyed Penguin has a proportionally longer wing, the Ameri- 

 can species has a shorter wing, but a relatively longer leg. The crown of the 

 head is canary yellow very lightly pencilled with black, and the crown is en- 

 circled by a golden band without black, about a quarter of an inch in width. 

 This penguin, whose range does not extend to Australia, is found on Stewart 

 Island (where it is generally referred to as the King Penguin), on the southern 

 and eastern shores of New Zealand, and on the Auckland, Campbell, and Mac- 

 quarrie Islands. Sometimes called the Grand Penguin and known to the 

 Maoris as Te Hoiho, this is the only member of the whole family which pays 

 much attention to nest-building, all the other species nesting either in caves, or 

 burrows or on the bare ground. The Yellow-eyed does not congregate to form 

 large rookeries during the breeding season, but a few, rarely more than a score, 

 nest in a scattered company. Two very pale blue eggs, two and three quarters 

 to three inches in length, are laid in the early part of September, in a large nest 

 formed of short sticks and lined with fern fronds, and as far as I have been able 

 to observe, the parents sit from thirty-two to thirty-six days. The young when 

 hatched are clad in a very scanty covering of short down, and are completely 

 helpless, unable to stand, and apparently blind. The young are fed, as in the 

 cormorants and other simihar birds, on regurgitated food which the chick obtains 

 by thrusting the head inside the parent's mouth. 



Apart from the Blue Penguin, the one most commonly met with is the 

 Crested Penguin [Calarrhactes chrysocome) .* This bird is occasionally met 

 with on the coast of Australia, and can be observed all round the New Zealand 

 coast, though most frequently on the eastern side; and I have had a nesting 

 cave of this species under close observation for two consecutive seasons at Coal 

 Island, Preservation Inlet. The total length of the bird is about twenty-six 

 inches, slightly less in the female, and the flipper is from five and a half to six 

 inches. The only visible difference between the two sexes lies in the size. The 

 upper surface of the body is dark slaty-blue, much darker, almost black on the 

 throat and back of the head, and the lower surface is pure white. From the base 

 of the bill, over each eye, is a tuft of clear yellow feathers extending somewhat 

 less than an inch beyond the head, but it is only when the bird is perfectly dry, 

 that the crest is very noticeable. Worthy of note here, is the fact that, whenever 

 any ornamentation occurs amongst the penguins, it takes the form of yellow- 

 coloured feathers in every instance. I might mention the yellow on the sides 

 of the neck in both the Emperor and the King; the yellow crown in the Yellow- 

 eyed and Royal Penguins; the yellow crest in the Crested and Thick-billed Pen- 

 guins; and the yellow throat in the Galapagos Penguin, a Neotropical species. 



In 1919, the first eggs were secured on July 12th, but in 1920 not until 

 August 2nd. The former season was a very wet one, and newly laid eggs were 

 found in great numbers in the mud of the cave, but the latter season was moder- 

 ately dry, and only a few eggs were to be seen at the beginning of August. Taking 

 the 1919 season, and allowing that the first eggs were laid on July 11th, then the 

 time of hatching was five weeks, as the first young ones were noted in the act 

 of emerging from the shell on August 14th. 



Two eggs form the normal clutch; two instances were noticed of three, 

 when one egg was very large and two unusually small, and were, in fact, the 

 eggs from which the following extreme measurements were taken. The eggs 

 are very pale blue with rough chalky incrustations, and measure from two and a 

 half to three and a third inches in length, the average being two and three quarters. 



The parent bird commences to sit when the first egg is laid, as in every 

 nest one chick was much larger than the other. I estimate that three days 

 elapse between the laying of the two eggs, and from this one is able to realize the 

 very rapid growth which the youngsters make. The nesting cave has a small, 

 fern and scrub-covered entrance, but is a very large place inside, as many as 

 sixty or seventy pairs nesting in it. The floor is coated with thick greasy mud, 

 and the walls and roof drip a horrid slimy ooze, and the air at the height of the 



'Editor's Note. — In a later communication Mr. Sutherland reports his decision that the bird under 

 review is C. pachyrhynchus, not C. chrysocome. 



IS 



