Order SPHENISOIFORMES.] 



H 



[Family SPHENISCID^. 



CATARRH ACTES CHRYSOLOPHUS. 



(MACARONI PENGUIN.) 



Eudyptes chrysolophus, Brandt; Buller, Birds of New Zealand, vol. ii., p. 297. 



I have recorded (op. cit.) two examples obtained in New Zealand. I have now to add a third 

 one, now in my collection, which came from Macquarie Island. 



This species has a general resemblance to G. schlegeli, but its bill is considerably smaller, its 

 crest of yellow feathers is less developed, and it is readily distinguishable from that species by its 

 blue-black throat, this colour tapering to a point on the upper fore-neck. 



Unlike the two New Zealand specimens mentioned above, the Macquarie-Island bird has a 

 conspicuous spot of yellowish-white on the upper tail-coverts. 



MEGADYPTES ANTIPODUM. 



(YELLOW-CROWNED PENGUIN.) 



Eudyptes antipodum, Hombr. & Jacq. ; Buller, Birds of New Zealand, vol. ii., p. 294. 



There is a distinct tendency in this species to melanism. I had an opportunity of examin- 

 ing the skins of eleven specimens that were taken together, in a sort of breeding colony, on the 

 coast, near the Otago Heads. Several of them had jet-black feathers scattered among the 

 pure-white plumage of the under-parts ; and in one of them I counted as many as nine of 

 these black feathers. 



A correspondent, who had one of these Penguins alive for some time, sends me the following 

 note : " When excited it has the habit of erecting all the feathers on the front of the head, and as 

 far back as the yellow band. When thus seen the silky lustre and varying shades of bronze down 

 the sides of the neck are very beautiful." 



The officers of the ' Hinemoa ' have told me that this is the most delicate of all the 

 Penguins, seldom surviving confinement more than a day or two. They were unable to bring me 

 any live ones, but they brought one for His Excellency the Governor, which I had an opportunity 

 of examining. I observed that, in life, it has peculiar flat, button-like eyes. 



Young. — In the bird of the first year the coronal band, so conspicuous in the adult, is entirely 

 absent. In the full-plumaged bird the white of the under-parts is continued right up to the crura 

 of the lower jaw, the darker colouring of the sides of the neck fading imperceptibly into it. In the 

 young bird the throat is pale grey. 



According to Mr. Grant, in the British Museum ' Catalogue,' the young bird differs from 

 the adult in having the yellow band confined to the sides of the head and not encircling the 

 crown ; whilst in still younger examples in the Tring Museum the yellow band is entirely 

 wanting. 



