194. Transactions.^ — Zoology, 



away, and now people are living at the Marble Quarry. The only difference 

 between male and female is the slightly smaller size of the latter. I have 

 found an insect similar to the Membranacea inside the edges of the bill, 

 which adhered so firmly that they parted in two on my trying to get them 

 off. Eventually I had to poison them to succeed. 



5. Eudyptula minor. Blue Penguin. 



This little bird is not so common in the sounds. I have only found 

 them in pairs, and they differ slightly in their habits from the larger 

 variety. I have found their nests, which are better built, nearer the shore, 

 and as far back as a mile in the bush ; and in one instance in a burrow 

 12 feet long. Coming ashore in September, the male brings the sticks, 

 leaves, etc., for the female to build, generally in a burrow under the roots of 

 trees. Both are together in the day-time in their burrows, when they make 

 a noise like a kitten ; in the night they build their nest, and towards the 

 end of September two white roundish eggs are laid, which are reared by 

 both parents, and protected from any intruder, whom they pluckily attack. 

 In the beginning of November, I have seen young birds covered with slight 

 down, dark grey on the top of the head and the back, white on the throat, 

 breast, and abdomen. The female is considerably smaller than the male. 

 In the end of February and March, they leave the shore with their parents 

 for their unfriendly element, where they are as active, but not so powerful 

 of endurance as the larger species, as I have found many of them driven 

 ashore after a severe gale, dead. Their food is fish and Crustacea. These 

 birds are distributed over the North, South, and surrounding Islands of 

 New Zealand, and where they are not disturbed they are very plentiful, 

 especially on the Motutiri and- Taranga Islands, Hauraki Gulf. Their 

 enemies are the domestic dog and cat run wild. 



6. Nestor, sp. Kaka. 



This bird represents Nestor meridionalis in the sounds, but is not very 

 plentiful. I have found them alone and in pairs or with their young, from 

 two to four. They breed in hollow trees. The nest consists of a deepen- 

 ing lined with wood-dust and feathers out of the parent birds. They lay 

 their eggs from beginning of March till April. Male and female hatch and 

 rear the young birds together ; in August the young birds are fullgrown. 

 This bird is not so gregarious as his ally meridionalis, also different in 

 plumage and construction of the skeleton and habits ; the cry and whistle 

 is shriller ; the male is fiery red under the wings, the female golden yellow 

 and a little smaller. These birds are very bold. On the 13th April, 1884, I 

 found in a bollow tree a female with one egg and three young birds, which 

 she pluckily defended by bitiug and scratching. At the cry of the female 

 the male came swooping several times past my head. This species is the 

 finest of the three existing species of Nestor. 



