60 EDWARD A. WILSON. 



in a very much drier spot than that chosen by the neighbouring King Penguins, and 

 considerably more limited in size and extent. Definite nests had been made by each 

 pair of birds quite close to one another, composed of grey pebbles, twenty to 

 thirty in number, small and large, with water-worn bones picked up on the adjacent 

 shore. They were well-formed structures with raised edges, circular, and with a good 

 depression in the centre of each. The birds had already made good progress with their 

 incubation, for in every nest we found an egg, and they were all too fully 

 incubated to be useful as food. The male shares the labour of incubation with the 

 female, and the process is said to be completed in a month. The eggs we took were 

 about three parts incubated. 



Their measurements vary between 7-5 cm. and 8 • 5 cm. for the longer diameter, 

 and between 5-5 and 6-25 cm. for the shorter diameter; thus in five of the eggs 

 taken the measurements are as follows : — 



8-2 cm. X 6-1 cm. 7-8 cm. X 5-5 cm. 8-0 cm X 5-0 cm. 



7-5 cm. X 5-0 cm. 8 -.5 cm. x 6-25 cm. 



They are all pyriform in shape, and have the usual chalky-white shell which 

 characterises the eggs of other penguins. 



A most interesting article, by Mr. Bickerton, dealing with the Royal and King 

 Penguins' rookeries on this island is to be found in the " Pall Mall Magazine " for 

 November, 1897. In it he gives September as the month in which this bird begins to 

 lay. This does not quite agree with our observations, from which we concluded that 

 the esss could not have been laid before the middle of October. Mr. Bickerton's visit 

 was made in March, 1895, and it is possible that he was misled by the account of the 

 sealers who accompanied him. He says, further, that the Royal Penguins begin to 

 arrive at the Macquarie Islands in January to moult, and upon his arrival in March, 

 although birds were still arriving, yet the moult was still in progress. It is said to 

 last three weeks, and during this time, as with other species of penguin, the birds 

 live on their very plentiful supply of fat, since they will not enter the water until the 

 process of moulting is completed. 



The young are said to he ready for the water within three months of hatching. 

 If this is so the down must Ije shedding about the month of February, and Mr. 

 Bickerton arrived only just too late to see them. The whole process of incubation and 

 chicken rearing by the Royal Penguin is, therefore, very comparable to that of the 

 Adelie Penguin farther south, but every stage takes place about a month earlier. 



When we were on the spot in November no moulting birds were to be seen, and 

 every bird was paired, nests made, and an egg laid to each pair of birds. Their 

 condition was so uniform throughout that we could only conclude that the laying of 

 eggs takes place, as in the Adelie Penguin, almost to the day throughout the rookery, 

 and not over a considerable extent of time, as in the case of the King Penguin. Only 

 two phases of plumage were to be seen in November. First, and by far the most 

 numerous, were the fully adult birds with white throats and chins, and long 



