Hyatt.] 240 [Maytt 



of feathers, exclusive of the tail feathers and the long filiform plumes 

 which occur on the heads of the species of Eudyptes; one is the 

 type found in Spheniscus. This has the barbs and shaft which form 

 the extremity of the feathers dark colored, the remaining barbs and 

 the base of the stem growing lighter until the down at the base be- 

 comes perfectly white. The stem is in these very flat, and the bases 

 of the barbs turned where they join the shaft or aftershaft. This 

 division of color I presume takes place when the aftershaft barb takes 

 the place of the true shaft barbs, but this I could net determine satis- 

 factorily. In the feathers of Spheniscus they occupy a considerable 

 proportion of the whole length of the rather short and truncated 

 plume. 



In Aptenodytes Pennantii the stem, instead of being but slightly in- 

 flated at the base as in Spheniscus, is very considerably so; and is, 

 together with the barbs, brownish to the very base as in this genus; 

 the black being, on the contrary, confined to the very summit of the 

 feather. In the form of the stem and its color, the outlines of the 

 feather and the tumidity of the bases of the barbs near the base of 

 the stem, it is very similar to the dorsal feathers of Spheniscus, but 

 in the form of the stem and in size it is precisely like Pygoscelis. 



This genus has very large shafts to the dorsal feathers, very broad 

 and abruptly lanceolate, the tube being smaller at the base than in 

 any other genus. The shaft itself is very broad, becoming suddenly 

 acute instead of gradually tapering, and the tip of the feather itself 

 more acute than in either Spheniscus or Aptenodytes. The barbs 

 and stem are dark colored at the summit, but speedily become white 

 and wholly downy at some distance from the base. This renders the 

 tip of the feather much denser than the lower two-thirds and gives 

 an attenuated, ragged look to the whole. Eudyptes has smaller 

 feathers than Pygoscelis and the stem considerably longer and nar- 

 rower, and not so abruptly lanceolate. The tip of the shaft narrows 

 and gradually reaches nearly to the outline of the barbs — these 

 being very short. The outline of the dorsal feathers is much the 

 same as in Pygoscelis, with perhaps a slightly more acute tip. The 

 long, lanceolate head feathers are peculiar, and differ from the dorsal 

 feathers in the extreme length of the shaft as well as the small size 

 and thinness of the base of the stem, which bears the later devel- 

 oped barbs. The feathers on the back of the heads of the different 

 species of this genus present an approximation to this same mode of 

 growth, the shaft being attenuated. In other genera the head feath- 



