iUMAIHh 



SOSBm^mSSBm 



HWMHIK 



Order ANSERIFORMES.] 



[Family ANATIDiE. 



MERCxANSEE AUSTKALIS. 



(AUCKLAND-ISLAND MERGANSER.) 



Mergus australis, Hombr. and Jacq. ; Buller, Birds of New Zealand, vol. ii., p. 279. 



The Auckland Islands, comprising altogether about 400 square miles, lie just 200 miles south of 

 Stewart Island. 



They no doubt represent one of the outlying remnants of an ancient and now submerged 

 continent, so that geologically they are as old as New Zealand. They are fully exposed to the 

 thundering surges of the South Pacific Ocean all the year round and, although natural erosion is 

 of course taking place, they have so. far resisted the ravages of time and tide, and bid fair to last 

 as long as New Zealand. 



According to Sir James Hector, Auckland Island is the remnant of a great volcanic cone 

 that was 12,000 feet in height and fifty miles in diameter in early Tertiary times, the chief centre 

 having been about eight miles west of Disappointment Island. He calculates that four-fifths of 

 the original mass has been removed by the denuding force of the westerly waves. 



These islands are very interesting to the naturalist, for — apart from their being the resort at 

 certain seasons of the year of countless seals and sea-birds — they have produced several peculiar 

 endemic species, such as the Flightless Duck (Nesonetta < aucldandica) , the Fulvous Bail 

 (H. muelleri) and a sedentary species of Snipe (Gallinago aucMandica), whilst in the still 

 waters formed by the narrow inlets along the coast a species of Merganser {M. australis), not 

 known in any other part of the world, is still occasionally to be met with. This bird has always 

 been rare in collections; but of late several beautiful specimens have been forwarded to the 

 British Museum by His Excellency the Earl of Eanfurly. 



I have in my collection an adult male, an adult female, and a nestling. There is a good 

 specimen in the Colonial Museum, and a pair in the Otago Museum. The British Museum 

 collection contains now a series of four. There are three specimens in the Tring Museum, a 

 pair in the Imperial Museum at Vienna, and a single specimen in the University Museum at 

 Cambridge. Besides those in my own collection this completes, as far as I am aware, the known 

 record of this endemic species. 



The specimen in the Otago Museum has darker plumage than either of my specimens. It 

 may probably be a younger bird, for there is scarcely any appearance of a crest. It has a narrow 

 white speculum. There is no sex given, but I take it to be a male. The feet have been painted 

 dull red by the taxidermist, who is a very careful observer ; the base of the lower mandible paler 

 red, the rest blackish-brown. 



It is very desirable that specimens of this interesting form should be obtained for our 

 museums before it is too late. Although the Government steamboat makes periodical visits 

 to the Auckland Islands, its only known habitat, and eager search is made, the bird is scarcely 

 ever seen ; but in the absence of the natural enemies, which abound elsewhere, there is no reason 

 why the species should become extinct. 



Nestling. — I have in my collection a nestling apparently about a week or ten days old. 

 It is covered with thick, long, and somewhat glossy down. The upper part and sides of the 

 head, the hind-neck, and the entire upper surface and sides of the body, dark olive-brown ; throat 

 and fore-neck and spot under each eye, bright rufous, fading away towards the breast ; under- 



