Order SPHENISCIFOKMES.] 



[Family SPHENISCID^l. 



CATAERHACTES PACHYEHYNCHUS. 



(VICTOEIA PENGUIN.) 



Eudyptes pachyrhynchus, Gray; Buller, Birds of New Zealand, vol. ii., p. 287. 



The name of Kock-hopper, by which Pygoscelis papua is known, might also well be applied to 

 this species. It moves along the ground with great celerity, and generally surmounts small 

 bushes and other obstacles in its way by jumping clean over them. I have known one 

 voluntarily enter a house and ascend the back staircase, right to the landing, hopping up step 

 by step. It moves about through the scrub very deftly, picking its steps in a very cautious cat- 

 like manner. 



Unlike Gatarrhactes schlegeli, this species is naturally wild in disposition and habitually 

 silent. On turning out half a dozen of them in my garden, they all hurried rapidly away into 

 the shrubbery, and when fairly out of sight one of them indulged in a vociferous chatter for some 

 time, as if addressing his fellows and proposing some plan for their mutual safety. This reminded 

 me of an amusing circumstance which the late Captain Fairchild had mentioned. His practice 

 when he got a lot of live Penguins on board the 'Hinemoa,' as he often did, was to secure them in 

 separate pens according to the species. He told me that on one occasion, in the pen occupied 

 by the Victoria Penguins, one of the birds, on gaining a higher foothold than the rest, vociferated 

 loudly, whilst the others kept quiet and appeared to listen. So, to accommodate the birds, 

 he had what he termed a "little pulpit " erected in the midst of the pen. He says it was most 

 ludicrous to see one of the Penguins, like a member of the French Senate, sedately mount 

 this rostrum and address his fellows for several minutes at a time in the most energetic manner, 

 the other Penguins keeping perfectly silent. Then an impatient auditor would waddle up along- 

 side, turn the speaker out of the chair, mount into position, and have his say to the crowd, and 

 so on, the audience being perfectly quiet and orderly. 



This species bites fiercely, and I saw one fairly run after and attack the hands of a man who 

 had been attempting to capture it. 



One of the birds brought to me by Captain Fairchild from the Snares was saved when the 

 others were converted into specimens. Originally very savage and pugnacious, this bird became 

 quite tame and docile. He would follow the gardener about in the most persistent manner to be 

 fed. After he had settled down to the new condition of things he took up his quarters in 

 the kennel with a young Gordon-setter. During the heat of the day he would take refuge 

 in the kennel, coming abroad in the cool of the evening and during the early morning. He 

 lived on terms of perfect amity with the dog, for whom at times he testified his affection by 

 gently pecking him all over the body with his bill, an attention which the sagacious animal 

 seemed quite to appreciate. 



At the end of February I saw a nestling of this species partly fledged. The down of the 

 upper surface was sooty-black, with a brownish tinge ; that of the under-parts white, excepting a 

 band of the dark colour, which crossed the fore-neck under the chin. 



The young of the first year presents only an indication of the yellow crests. 



According to Mr. Bethune, who has visited the Islands for many successive years in 

 the ' Hinemoa,' and collected birds there, this is the only species of Crested Penguin inhabiting 

 the Snares. 



Having met with some remarkable instances of melanism among specimens of Gatarrhactes 

 schlegeli and Megadytes antipodum, I discussed with Captain Hutton before I left New Zealand 

 the probability of his Black Penguin (Eudyptes atratus) being an abnormal form of the common 



