84 Transactions. — Zoology. 



for them. . . . No living thing that I ever saw expresses 

 so graphically a state of hurry as a Penguin when trying to 

 escape. Its neck is stretched out, flippers whirring like the 

 sails of a windmill, and body wagging from side to side, as its 

 short legs make stumbling and frantic efforts to get over 

 the ground. There is such an expression of anxiety written 

 all over the bird ; it picks itself up from every fall, and 

 stumbles again, with such an air of having an armful of bundles, 

 that it escapes capture quite as often by the laughter of the 

 pursuer as by its own really considerable speed. On the 

 3rd December, about the time of hatching, I observed a 

 school of these Penguins progressing by leaps clear of the 

 water ; one following another in so rapid succession that two 

 or three were always in the air, and with a motion so like that 

 of porpoises that I at first took them for those marine mam- 

 mals. In the water, indeed, all awkwardness at once dis- 

 appears, their speed in swimming being almost incredible, and 

 surpassing, of course, that of the fish upon which they feed. 

 On the 4th December I found one young Penguin just hatched, 

 and three more still in the eggs, which they had broken with 

 their beaks. The young are covered with soft, hairy, pearl- 

 grey down ; head black, above and behind." 



Aptenodytes longirostris, Scop. (The King Penguin.) 



In connection with the full account which I gave of this 

 species, from Macquarie Island, in last year's volume, the fol- 

 lowing note by Dr. Kidder is worth reproducing. I com- 

 mented on the extremely gentle nature of my birds ; Dr. 

 Kidder's experience with one, at least, on Kerguelen's Land 

 appears to have been different. He says, "The first speci- 

 mens of this Penguin found near our station were met with on 

 the beach on the 26th November, having apparently just come 

 out of the water. There was but a single pair, both of which 

 were secured, one. being brought home alive. The other fought 

 so fiercely that I had to kill him to get him home. . . . 

 I endeavoured to keep the other alive, tying it up on the 

 beach with a good long line to its leg. It would spend a large 

 part of everyday, at the end of its line, splashing in the water. 

 It finally entangled itself in the seaweed near the bottom, and 

 was drowned during the night. It slept bolt upright, balanced 

 on its heels, swaying back and forth as it breathed, and snor- 

 ing heavily. The neck is very extensible, so much so that the 

 bird can stand at least a foot taller when excited than when 

 at rest. It will frequently remain for twelve hours standing 

 in the same place, and seems to me to be in every way a 

 stupider bird than either Pi/goscelis or Eudijptcs. When 

 thrown down it raises itself by aid of its beak, pressing the 

 point against a stone. . . . Captain Fuller, of the 



