REPORT ON THE BIRDS— STEGANOPODES AND IMPENNES. 123 



Aii egg obtained at Marion Island, and attributed to this species, is of a uniform 

 chalky white, pyriform in shape, and measures 4 - 4 by 3*0 inches. 



The following is Mr Moseley's account of the breeding habits of this Penguin at Marion 

 Island in December 1873. 



" Most interesting, however, by far, amongst all rookeries of Penguins which I have 

 seen, was one of the King Penguins (Aptenodytes longirostis) which I met with a little 

 further along the shore. The rookery was on a space of perfectly flat ground of about 

 an acre in extent. It was divided into two irregular portions, a larger and smaller, by 

 some grassy mounds. The flat space itself had a filthy black slimy surface ; but the 

 sod was trodden hard and flat. About two-thirds of the space of one of the portions 

 of the rookery, the larger one, was occupied by King Penguins, standing bolt upright, 

 with their beaks upturned, side by side, as thick as they could pack, and jostling one 

 another as one disturbed them. 



In the figure the birds' heads are drawn as if held horizontally. This is unnatural. 

 The head and neck should be stretched out vertically, quite straight, with the tip of the 

 beak pointed directly upwards. 



The King Penguins stand as high as a man's middle, they are distinguished at once 

 not only by their size, but by two narrow streaks of bright orange yellow, one on each 

 side of the glistening white throat. 



Penguins were to be seen coming from and going to the sea from the rookery, but 

 singly, and not in companies like the crested Penguins. The King Penguins when 

 disturbed, made a loud sound bke " urr-urr-urr." They run with their bodies held 

 perfectly upright, getting over the ground pretty fast, and do not stop at all. A 

 good many were in bad plumage, moulting, but there were plenty also in the finest 

 plumage. On the small area of the rookery, which consisted of a flat space sheltered 

 all round by grass slopes, and which formed a sort of bay amongst these, communi- 

 cating with the larger area, by two comparatively narrow passages was the breeding 

 establishment. 



These Penguins are said by some observers to set apart regular separate spaces in 

 their rookeries for moulting, for birds in clean plumage not breeding, and again for 

 breeding birds. Here the breeding ground was quite separate, and the young and 

 breeding pairs were confined to this smaller sheltered area. This was the only King 

 Penguin rookery which I saw in full action." 



At Kerguelen and at the Falklands, Mr Murray informs me, this Penguin was met 

 with in parties numbering from three to twenty individuals upon the beaches, also upon 

 the mossy low grounds, often a mile or more from the sea. They were either moulting 

 or had quite recently moulted. 



