Aves.] StJBANTAECTlC ISLANDS OF NEW ZEALAND. 551 



Fam. PHYSETERIDAE. 

 Physeter, Linnaeus, 1758. 



Physeter macrocephalus, Linnaeus. (Sperm whale.) 



Physeter macrocephalus, Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. x, 1758, p. 76. 



This whale is an intertropical species, and, though it ranges into temperate 

 seas, it is unknown in colder areas. It is known to occur off the coast of New 

 Zealand, and Captain Bollons informs me that he has seen it as far south as 

 Campbell Island. He has never met with the killer (Orca) nor any of the smaller 

 dolphins in the neighbourhood of the southern islands. 



Hah. — As above noted. 



Fam. DELPHINIDAE. 

 Globiocephalus, Lesson, 1842. 



? Globiocephalus melas, Traill. (Blackfish.) 



Delphinus melas, Traill, Nicholson's Journ., xxii, 1809, p. 21. 



When members of the Transit of Venus Expedition arrived at Perseverance 

 Harbour, Campbell Island, in 1874, they found the remains of two cetaceans ; these 

 were identified by Filhol* as Physeter macrocephalus, and Globiocephalus macro- 

 rhynchus. Gray. The latter was more probably G. melas, well known from New 

 Zealand waters. 



In February, 1907, I saw hundreds of bodies of blackfishes lying on the beach 

 at Petrie Bay, Chatham Islands, where they had been stranded some months pre- 

 viously. 



AVES. 



The following account of the birds is a very inadequate one, principally for the 

 following reasons : While most of the subjects to be studied had been allotted to 

 different members of the expedition, the arrangements made in respect to the birds 

 had fallen through ; it was not, therefore, until after our return that I was asked 

 to write the account. While on the islands I did not pay the special attention to 

 the birds I would have done had I known what would later have been required of 

 me, nor — and what was almost equally important — had I acquainted myself with 

 the literature of the subject beforehand. It was, further, one of the rules of the 

 expedition that neither birds nor their eggs were to be taken ; consequently, I have 

 little material for purposes of identification or description. The report, therefore, 

 consists of an enumeration of the species recorded from the islands, together with 

 some notes made on birds which attracted my attention. Some of these notes, more 

 especially those dealing with the avifauna of islands other than the Aucklands, 

 were made in February, 1907, when, by courtesy of His Excellency the Governor, I 

 had the privilege of accompanying him on a tour through the southern islands. 



* Filhol, loc. cit., p. 34. 



