IOo8 NESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



mouth. The nesting places are amongst the tumbled-dowu bouldi#is, 

 tlio pair of eggs being deposited on the bare ground or rock. It is 

 remarkable that the first egg laid should be smaller than the other. 

 The old birds take their- 3'oimg away in March, the former returning 

 to moult in May, and finally leaving about the middle of June. It 

 may not be generally known that a Penguin takes exactly 28 days 

 to moult. 



In the " Transactions of the Connecticut Academy " (U.S.A.), 1895, 

 Mr. G. E. Verrill quotes a note of Mr, George Comer, who spent a season 

 on tJio islands of Goiigh, Kerg-uelen, and South Georgia, and who states 

 the Rock Hopper Penguins ( E. rhri/sorome ) have dark-yellow beaks, top 

 of feet white, bottom black, pupil of eye dark, with red rim ; topknots 

 or crest dull-yellow, mixed with a few black feathers. They lay two 

 eggs, the first cue smaller than the other, and slightly tinted green. 

 When these are taken the birds will lay again. They often were 

 stained with green, so this is apparently not due to herbage, as there is 

 none in the cave, and the birds would not have to pass over any in 

 entering or leaving it for the sea. One most ciuious fact was that in 

 no cas3 did we find two eggs from one nest coiTespond in size or form." 



Sir Wyville Thomson, in the " Voyage of the ' Challenger,' " writes : 

 " Beyond the garden the tussock grass ( Sjynriinn arundinfirea) of the 

 Tristan group fonns a dense jungle. The root-clumps, or ' tussocks,' 

 are two or three feet in width and about a foot high, and the spaces 

 between jthem one or two feet wide. The tuft of thick gra.ss stems 

 (seven or eight feet in height) rises strong and straight for a yard or 

 so, and then the culms sep:irate from one another and mingle with those 

 of the neighbouring tussocks. This makes a bush very difficult to make 

 one's way through, for the heads of gi'ass are closely entangled together 

 on a level with the face and chest. In tliis scrub one of the Crested 

 Penguins, probably Eii(hi[itfi< cJiri/sdraine, called by the natives in 

 common with other species of the genus Eii/7i/ptes ' Rock Hoppers,' has 

 (stablished a rookci-y. From ai great distance, even so far as the hut 

 on the ship, one could hear an incessant noise, like the barking of a 

 myriad of dogs in all possible keys, and as we came near the place bands 

 of Pcngfuins were seen constantly going and returning between the 

 rookei-y and the sea. All at once, out at sea, a. himdred yards or so 

 from the .shore, the water is seen in motion, a, dark-red beak and some- 

 times a pair of eyes appearing now and then for a moment above the 

 smface. The moving water approaches the shore in a wrd?e-sha])e. and 

 with great rapidity a band of perhaps thiTe or four Imndred Penguins 

 scramble out upon the stones, again exchanging the vigorous and _gi-aceful 

 movements and attitudes for which they are so remarkable while in the 

 water for helpless and ungainly ones, tumbling over the stones and 

 apparently with difficulty assuming their nonnal position, upright on 

 their feet, which are set far back, and with their fin-like wings hanging 

 in a useless kind of way at their sides. When they have got fairly 

 out of the water, beyond the reach of the surf, they stand together for 

 a few minutes, di-ying and dressing themselves and talking loudly 

 apparently congi-atulating themselves on their safe landing, and then 

 they scramble in a body over the stony beach, many falling and pulling 



