OCR Text |
Show 1889.] Sill W. L. BULLER ON A NEW PENGUIN. 83 But the bird to which I desire to call particular attention this evening is the Crested Penguin of the Auckland Islands, a species hitherto supposed to be the same as that inhabiting New Zealand, an example of which was lately living in the Society's Gardens at Regent's Park. In April last m y attention was directed to this bird by Dr. Sclater, who sent me a note saying : - " The bird just received from the Auckland Islands seems quite distinct from the New Zealand species." I at once repaired to ths Gardens and made as close a survey as I could of this Penguin as it waddled about within its glass enclosure or swam in its artificial pool. When it, some time afterwards, died the skin was courteously forwarded to me by Mr. Bartlett, the Superintendent of the Gardens, for more critical examination. About the same time I received from Sir James Hector a Penguin preserved in spirit (also from the Auckland Islands), which proved to belong to the same form ; and on a careful comparison of these specimens with a good series of New-Zealand examples in my own collection, I came to the conclusion that the Auckland-Island bird was a new species, distinguishable from the former by its larger size, by the peculiar character of its superciliary streak, and by the different coloration of its flippers. It having thus become necessary to select a distinctive name for this bird, I felt that I could not do better than dedicate it to Dr. Sclater, who was the real discoverer of this species, *ind I accordingly described it, under the name of Eudyptes sclateri, IA m y ' Birds of New Zealand' (2nd ed. vol. ii. p. 289). In this species the superciliary streak of golden yellowy which, as in Eudyptes pachyrhynchus, develops into a short erectile '••rest on each side of the head, instead of commencing in a line with th" nostrils, as in the latter species, springs from the base of the up**er mandible immediately above the angle of the mouth. The posterior edge of the flippers, in its middle portion, has a border of white nearly *25 of an inch in width running off on both sides to a point, the under surface in its basal and apical portion, with a broad connecting band along the anterior edge, being jet-black. The bill is uniform reddish brown, with a line of white along the base of the lower mandible, which is more conspicuous in the living bird than in the dried specimen, being somewhat concealed in the latter by the overlapping feathers. The total length is 28 inches ; length of flipper 8 ; tail 3*5 ; bill, along the ridge 2*4, along the edge of lower mandible 2*75 ; tarsus 1*25. The synonymy of these three species, according to my views, is as follows : - 1. EUDYPTES PACHYRHYNCHUS. (Plate IX. fig. 2.) Eudyptes pachyrhynchus, Gray, Voy. Ereb. & Terr., Birds, p. 17 (1814). Chrysocoma pachyrhynchus, Bonap. C. II. xliii. p. 775 (1856). Eudyptes pachyrhyncha, Gray, Hand-1. of B. iii. p. 98 (1871). |