THE ROYAL PENGUIN. 61 



golden-yellow superciliary plumes. (Secondly, there were a considerable number of 

 yearling birds, with dark grey chins and throats and short golden plumes. Besides 

 these were to be found a certain number with slight traces of grey persisting upon 

 the throat, birds which, judging from the length of their plumes, were at least two 

 years old, if the grey-throated birds were correctly considered yearlings. 



Fig. 1 of Plate XL gives the features of the head of the yearlings, Fig. 2 the head 

 of an adult male. It is interesting to note that the lemon-yellow tinge, which is seen 

 on the white feathers at the base of the mandible in Fig. 2, has its exact counterpart 

 in the same position in Megadyptes antijwdum, which has been figured on the same 

 plate for the sake of comparison (Fig. 3, Plate XL). 



Further, it is significant to note that this is the region in which the King Penguin 

 developos the same greenish gloss that is to be seen upon the crown and superciliary 

 regions. This greenish gloss on the crown I have shown [see pp. 35 and 36), in the case of 

 the King Penguin, to be the earliest indication of the orange-yellow pigmentation, which 

 eventually colours the superciliary crowns and crests of Megadyptes and Catarrhactes. 

 That it should be apparent not only on the crown of the King Penguin, but also 

 on its chin and upper throat, is obviously an indication of a tendency to produce the 

 yellow pigment there, and consequently it is to be found quite conspicuously developed 

 in Megadyptes, and to some extent also in Catarrhactes schlegeli, suggesting that the 

 affinities between Aptenodytes and the two genera just named are more close than 

 might otherwise have been expected. 



For we have, thus, not only in the crown and superciliary region, l)ut also in the 

 throat, a development of a very characteristic pigmentation from Aptenodytes forsteri 

 through A. patagonica to Megadyptes, and so to Catarrhactes schlegeli. There appears 

 to l)e no similar tendency in the other members of Catarrhactes, and certainly in 

 Pygoscelis one would not expect it, as it is only just making its appearance in 

 Ap>tenodytes. 



The fully developed plumes of Catarrhactes schlegeli present a very grotesque 

 appearance as they stand out on both sides of the head and frame the fierce-looking 

 blood-red eyes and the large red bill. The birds looked like harpies cowering over 

 their nests on our approach, swearing and growling in concert with the harsh and 

 angry cries of their neighbours in a way which was almost deafening. 



While engaged in incubating its egg the bird squats in the same manner as the 

 Ade'lie Penguin, right down upon its breast. There is no eflibrt to hold the egg 

 between the legs, and in no case was the egg lifted when we raised the liird from its 

 nest. Yet the production of a single egg may be considered the first step towards 

 what one may call the hyperpodial method of incubation employed by the King and 

 Emperor Penguins, which although more primitive than Catarrhactes in some respects, 

 must be considered more highly specialised in this particular direction. 



I have elsewhere mentioned that we found the skin of an albino Royal Penguin 

 in one of the huts on shore, with a large collection of other bird skins prepared and 



