288 
Nestling. Head and throat, hind neck and entire upper surface covered with short, thick, woolly down of a sooty 
brown colour j the rest of the body covered with yellowish-white down, but so thinly that the white skin is 
visible underneath. From the crop to the abdomen, down the centre, there is a perfectly hare strip ; the 
flippers also are bare. Bill brownish black, changing to dull white at the tip ; feet flesh-white. 
Obs. A specimen caught in the castaway wreck of a brig near the Wellington heads, in 1856, was brought to 
me in a moulting condition, and presented a very singular appearance — the plumage peeling off as it were 
in large patches, and disclosing to view a short undergrowth of new feathers : the whole process was 
completed in two or three days. 
The eyes are not as depicted in my former edition. They are of a dark brick-red, with a very small 
pupil, which in the strong sunlight becomes reduced to a mere black point, situated above the middle line. 
The eve has a very peculiar appearance, being more like a flat button than a bird s eye, and it is large for the 
size of the Penguin. It reminds one in its general character of a seaPs eye, and on watching the bird in the 
sunlight it will he seen that the nictitating membrane, which is extremely thin and transparent, is being con- 
tinually drawn over it, having the appearance, owing to its delicacy, of a mere line crossing the vision, there 
being no movement whatever of the eyelids. The feet are of a pinky flesh -colour, not dark as in my former 
Plate, which was drawn from a preserved specimen. The hill is of a uniform rich pale orange-brown, not 
dark brown as in the old figure. I examined on one occasion six or seven of these birds on board the 
‘ Hinemoa,’ and all had bills of the same colour. Both sexes are crested, and I can distinguish no 
difference in the plumage. 
This fine Penguin is more or less distributed, in suitable localities, all around our coast-line. In the 
North Island it is a comparatively rare bird, but it becomes more numerous as we proceed south ; 
and in the West Coast sounds large colonies of them are to be found breeding together among the 
rocks or in the caverns scooped out of the cliffs by the erosive action of the sea. Reischek found as 
many as twenty-four pairs associated together in Supper Cove, and nearly as many on Cooper’s Island. 
In the vicinity of these breeding-places the birds may often be seen swimming in companies, cleaving 
the water like a school of small porpoises. On the Snares, he “ saw thousands of them jumping over 
the rocks, and fishing in the sea to feed their young ones, which were nearly full-grown.” This was 
about the last week in January. 
On Bounty Island they congregate in large numbers during the breeding-season, sharing the 
domain with Diomedea melanophrys and other sea-birds having a community of interest. (See wood- 
cut on page 293.) 
Major Mail- informs me that he saw a perfectly tame one, which had been captured by the natives 
half a mile up the Opotiki river, in 1868. It is not often that this Penguin wanders so far up the 
coast, although I have a record of one taken at the mouth of the Waiotahi, five miles further north. 
It is occasionally found nesting on the Island of Kapiti, hut not in communities. 
The eggs, as a rule, are of a very rounded form, measuring 2‘9 inches in length by 2'3 in breadth. 
The largest and most rounded specimen in my son’s collection gives the above measurements ; the 
smallest, which is more ovoido-conical in form, measures 2'75 inches by 2-05 ; and one of intermediate 
size 2" 9 inches by 2T. I have seen one, however, of a broadly elliptical form, measuring 2‘9 by 1'9, 
and with its smaller pole much fiattened. The colour of the shell when fresh is a pale bluish green, 
the tint being brighter in some than in others, but this is in a great measure due to the presence in 
some of a chalky film of yellowish white ; after being incubated they become much soiled and 
stained. In some specimens the surface exhibits minute pimples or chalky excrescences. 
