352 



ORNITHOLOGY, 



Voyage Astrolabe and Zelee, Birds, Plate XXXIII, fig. 2. 

 According to Mr. Peale : 



" This species was found in great numbers at the Auckland Islands, 

 in the month of March. On shore, they were easily captured, and 

 Dr. S. Holmes, of the U. S. Brig Porpoise, prepared the skins of a pair 

 which are now deposited with the National Collections in the City of 

 Washington." 



This is one of the finest species of this curious group of birds, and 

 had singularly escaped the researches of voyagers and naturalists, 

 until taken to Europe by the naturalists of the Astrolabe and Zelee, 

 as above. It is handsomely and accurately figured in their Atlas, 

 above cited. 



3. EuDTPTES Adeli^ [Homh. and Jcicq.) . 



Catarrhacies Adelia, HoMB. and Jacq. Ann. Sci. Nat. XVI, p. 320 (1841). 

 AptenoJrjteH loinjicaudata, Peale, Zool. U. S. Exp. Exp. Birds, p. 261 (1848).* 



* " Throat, and all the upper parts black, beneath white ; tail long, cuneate, black, 

 and consisting of fourteen feathers, which have strong, black, and elastic shafts ; bill 

 stout, feathered nearly half its length; commissure nearly straight; upper mandible de- 

 pressed, slightly hooked, and having a double cutting margin ; palate strongly armed 

 with corneous pointed papillfc, directed towards the throat; under mandible compressed, 

 sligiitly truncate ; nostrils membranous, valvular, and in the dried specimens scarcely 

 discernible; color reddish-brown; plumage dense, strong, glossy, about one inch and a 

 half long, pointed ; the shafts very broad and flat; white on the breast, and black on the 

 back; back-feathers black at the extremities, and margined with blue; a very full coat 

 of down envelopes the base of all the feathers; it is white on all the under parts, and 

 fuliginous above ; wings black outside, with a white hinder margin, each feather edged 

 with blue ; inside white, with a margin in front of black, scale-like plumage, which 

 has merely a slight marginal web, not distinguishable by the unassisted eye ; feet flesh- 

 colored ; the nails strong, rounded, rather blunt, and nearly straight, reddish-brown. 



" Total length, when killed, thirty-one inches (the stufi'ed skin measures thirty-three 

 and a half inches) ; extent across the wings, twenty-three inches; bill, one and five-tenths 

 inches; and from the feathers on the commissure and the under mandible, six-tenths 

 of an inch beyond the feathers of the chin ; wings, seven inches long, two and two-tenths 

 inches wide at elbow; foot, four and one-tenth inches; middle toe, including the nail, 

 three inches ; nail, eight-tenths of an inch ; outer toe, half an inch longer than the inner, 

 the fourth toe little more than a rudiment, half an inch long, including the nail, two- 

 tenths of an inch; tail, six and five-twentieths inches; the outer feathers two inches; 

 the intermediate feathers regularly graduated. Male, obtained by Dr. S. Holmes, of the 

 Brig Porpoise, latitude 64° 40' S., and 103° 4' E. from Greenwich." 



