Order SPHENISCIFOBMES.] 



[Family SPHENISCIDJE. 



?6 



EUDYPTULA MINOR. 



(BLUE PENGUIN.) 



Eudyptula minor, Gmelin; Buller, Birds of New Zealand, vol. ii., p. 30. 



Captain Hutton expresses an opinion that Eudyptula albosignata (meaning this form) " appears 

 to be restricted to Banks' peninsula " ; but during a period of some years I have obtained 

 numerous specimens, from time to time, in the Hauraki Gulf and in Cook's Strait. 



Australian naturalists record that undoubted examples of this species have been taken near 

 the South Solitaries Islands, off the New South Wales coast. 



EUDYPTULA UNDINA. 



(LITTLE BLUE PENGUIN.) 



Eudyptula undina, Gould ; Buller, Birds of New Zealand, vol. ii., p. 320. 



In his ' Catalogue of Penguins ' in the British Museum, Mr. Ogilvie Grant drops Eudyptula 

 undina, and recognises only E. minor and E. albosignata ; in point of fact, he substitutes 

 Dr. Finsch's Eudyptula albosignata for E. minor and Eudyptula minor for E. undina. This 

 might be a more convenient nomenclature, but I cannot follow him, because it does violence to 

 the long-established rule as to priority of names. 



Eudyptula undina was described by Mr. Gould as far back as 1844 (' Proc. Zool. Soc.' of that 

 year, p. 57), being founded on specimens obtained at Circular Head, Tasmania. It is a smaller 

 bird than the then well-known E. minor, described by Gmelin in 1788, and owing to the brighter 

 colouration a skin could be picked out of a hundred specimens of the other without any difficulty. 

 If Finsch's name of albosignata is intended to apply to one of these two species — as it certainly 

 is — then it will not stand, and becomes a mere synonym. The question remains as to which of 

 them should the name go ? Evidently to E. minor, because of the larger size. The only distin- 

 guishing features given by Mr. Ogilvie Grant are : " upper parts of a much lighter greyish-blue, 

 both the outer and inner margins of the nippers widely bordered with white [these are the 

 distinguishing characters of E. minor as compared with E. undina] and, in addition, a more or 

 less distinct white patch towards the middle of the inner margin." As pointed out long ago by 

 myself (' Trans. N.Z. Inst.,' vol. vii., p. 210),* this is a very variable character. It may have 

 been absent, or it may have been overlooked, in the original type of E. minor, but this is not 

 sufficient to justify a change of name. The diagnosis continues : " upper tail-coverts, as well 

 as the tail feathers generally white." Mr. Ogilvie Grant's punctuation does not show whether he 

 means " tail feathers generally, white " or that these parts are " generally white." As a matter 

 of fact they seldom are so — only, indeed, in individual cases. Out of the four British Museum 

 examples, two have the tail and its coverts, white ; in the others the colour of these parts is blue. 



Some ornithologists are for uniting this species with Eudyptula minor ; but, as will be seen 

 on comparing specimens, they are readily distinguishable from each other. There is a manifest 

 difference in the size of the bill, and E. undina is further separable by having the entire under- 

 surface of the nippers white. 



I have had an opportunity of examining a pure albino of this species, obtained by 

 Mr. Black at Mercury Bay. The entire plumage was snow-white, with a silky gloss on the 

 under-parts. 



* See also Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. viii., p. 198. 



