Order SPHENISCIFOKMES.] 



[Family SPHENISCIDJE. 



CATARRHACTES YITTATUS. 



(THICK-BILLED PENGUIN.) 



fiudyptes Yittatus, Finsch; Buller, Birds of New Zealand, vol. ii., p. 299. 



I obtained a specimen of this very rare Penguin at Stewart Island at the end of February. The 

 bird landed of its own accord in the little bay in which we were temporarily residing, and came 

 hopping up the steep garden-path to the very door of the house, as if anxious to make the 

 acquaintance of a practical ornithologist. It passed bravely through a group of tourists who 

 were standing about, and snapped savagely at those who attempted to arrest its progress. 

 I saw at a glance that it was not one of the common species, and, receiving my visitor with 

 every expression of delight, speedily annexed him. Curiously enough, he allowed me to 

 stroke his head without resistance and, later on, submitted to be killed with the philosophy of a 

 Penguin. 



I have since received a fine adult pair from the Southland coast. 



Dr. Sharpe has omitted this species in his ' Handlist of Birds ' ; and Mr. Oglivie Grant, in the 

 * Catalogue of Birds,' British Museum (xxvi., p. 638), writes : " There can scarcely be any doubt 

 that the species is founded on a worn and faded example of C. pachyrhynchus." He bases this 

 belief on a photograph of the bird sent to him by Captain Hutton. But I have seen the type 

 specimen, and I think Dr. Finsch is right in discriminating it as a distinct species. 



Captain Hutton, in his interesting article on ' Penguins,' published in The Emu (vol. ii., 

 part 1, July, 1902), says: 



That the Penguins are descended from flying birds is proved by the structure of the wing. Not only 

 are the bones on the same pattern as that found in other birds, but several of the muscles of flying birds are 

 represented in the Penguins by non-contractile tendinous bands, which are functionally useless, but which 

 have not yet altogether disappeared. It is certain that they are not closely related to the Auks of the northern 

 hemisphere — which are somewhat like Penguins in appearance — but that they come nearest to the Petrels, or 

 Tubinares, although the two groups are so different in form. This makes it difficult to guess what the ances- 

 tors of the Penguins were like. 



The oldest Penguin known is Palceeudyptes antarcticus* from the eocene or oligocene rocks of New 

 Zealand. But it is a true Penguin, and, except that the wing is proportionally rather longer than in living 

 Penguins, it shows no other intermediary character. The only other known fossil Penguins are four species 

 of Paleospheniscus and one of Paraptenodytes from the miocene of Patagonia. 



It is worthy of notice that the remains of Palceeudyptes are found in the Oamaru freestone, which is the 

 remains of an old coral reef, and that in the miocene period also the sea, both in New Zealand and in Pata- 

 gonia, appears to have been warmer than it is now. 



Palceeudyptes is represented by the humerus, coracoid, femur, and metatarsus. The skull, unfortunately, 

 has not yet been found. It was larger than any living Penguin, probably from 5 to 6 feet high, and was 

 thought by Professor Huxley, who described it, to be more nearly related to the genus Eudyptes ( = Gatarr- 

 hactes + Megadyptes) than to any other. 



Captain Mair, writing to me of the small Blue Penguin, says : " In December, 1894, I met 

 some boys who had found a Penguin and young in an old shaft at the foot of the hill behind 

 the Thames township, at the head of May Creek, so that to reach its nest and carry food to its 

 young the bird must have travelled up the street every time, and run considerable risks from dogs, 

 &c. Penguins are very rarely seen so far up the Gulf." 



* Huxley, Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc, xv., p. 672 (1859) ; and Hector, Trans. N. Z. List., iv., p. 341 (1872). 



