THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
distance from the others. No sign of a nest is to be seen. Subangular 
fragments of rock covered with slimy, black mud covered the gromid, and the 
beautiful white breasts of the birds were simply filthy with the splashings. 
Some few birds Just at the edge of the crowd (late arrivals I suppose) had eggs 
not yet hatched, one egg to each bird, and this egg was carefully carried on 
the two big black feet, with a fold of the skin of the abdomen held over it. 
They even found it possible to move about like this, with the egg in this 
curious position, much resembling a boy in a sack-race. There were others 
whose anxieties were over, and who had the care of a fat little chicken, as 
black as a coal and very helpless. They all endeavoured to get as far under 
their parents as possible ; but these seemed to be very little protection for 
them.” 
The bird figured and described is the type male, collected on Macquarie 
Island. 
The distribution of Aptenodytes patagonica has been usually given 
as “ Kerguelen I., Crozets I., Macquarie I., South Georgia, etc.” I find 
that three races can be differentiated, and would advise the following 
nomenclature : — 
Aptenodytes patagonica pakigonica Miller . . . . South Georgia, Falkland I. 
Aptenodytes patagonica longirostris Scopoli . . . . Crozet I., Kerguelen I. 
Aptenodytes patagonica halli Mathews . . . . Macquarie I. 
I have preserved for the Crozet-Kerguelen form Scopoli’ s name, as it 
seems certain to me that that was the form named by Scopoli. Sonnerat 
described the bird, upon which longirostris is founded, after voyaging from 
the Seychelles to Luzon, and I cannot see how he could have met with 
any other form. It is impossible to accept New Guinea as the habitat of a 
bird like this. 
The type locality of A. patagonica- is South Georgia, as Foster’s drawing 
in the British Museum avers, and this is the orginal of Miller’s illustration. 
The only form needing a name is the one I have described, and which, breeding 
on Macquarie Island, would be the most likely form to occur in Australia. 
I have not examined the only Australian killed specimen, but confidently 
put forward this name as being applicable to it. Though the King 
Penguins are very similar, I would point out, as the result of examination 
of a series, that : — 
A. p. halli differs in its lighter coloration above and less blue on the 
under-side of the flipper, from the typical form, while the feathers of the 
inside on the tarsus are white ; in the typical subspecies the feathers of 
the tarsus are blue all round, forming a collar. 
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