NO. 2298. THE GUANO BIRDS OF PERU—COKEB. 455 



about three quarters of a billion dollars. Billion-dollar birds, they 

 have easily been without exaggeration. Well before the close of the 

 century the best ancient deposits were exhausted and the lowest 

 grades were being sought. In the first years of the present century 

 the exportation was in the neighborhood of 100,000 tons a year. At 

 the present time it is less. The requirement of Peruvian agriculture 

 as estimated in 1905 was 25,000 to 40,000 tons a year. While the 

 the remnants of the ancient deposits, so far as is known, are of the 

 lowest quality (3 per cent or less of nitrogen), it is to be emphasized 

 that the annual production of the birds, amounting in 1906-1908 to 

 20,000 tons or more, is of the highest grade, yielding by analysis 

 from 12 to 17 per cent of nitrogen (with higher ammonia equivalent) 



THE PENGUIN. 



One of the most interesting birds of the Peruvian coast is the 

 smaller penguin, Syheniscus humboldti Meyen (pi. 53, fig. 1). The Pe- 

 ruvians aptly call it the "pajaro-nino," or "baby-bird," Observed 

 from a distance, the waddling uncertain gait and the stumpy flight- 

 less wings held out awkw^ardly inevitably suggest the manner of 

 an infant toddling on the beach. 



Undoubtedly the penguin was much more abundant on the coast 

 many years ago than it is at the present. Raimondi,^ at the time 

 of his visit (evidently in 1855), mentioned that the penguin had 

 quite abruptly left the north island of the Chinchas, was rarely 

 found in the middle island, but was in "great abundance" on the 

 south island at that time. This change of home was undoubtedly 

 due to the operations of guano extraction that were being carried 

 on upon the islands. At the present time a few penguins may be 

 observed at any of these islands, but nowhere could they be described 

 as abundant. The largest number seen at one time was on the beach 

 of the Isla Vieja, in the Bay of Independencia, where about 60 birds 

 were congregated. 



The northward range of the penguin is surprising at first, but it is 

 readily accounted for by the effect of the cold Humboldt Current, 

 which, supplemented as it doubtless is by the upwelhng of bottom 

 waters, tempers the climate of the coast of Peru, even up to within a 

 few miles of the equator. The farthest north I observed the penguin 

 was at the islands of Lobos de Afuera in 7 degrees South latitude. 

 At Guanape very young penguins were seen on the rocky shore in 

 March, 1907, or late summer of the southern hemisphere. At the 

 Ballestas Islands, a part of the Chinchas group, in May, 1907, the 

 nests of the penguin were found commonly in some of the deeper 

 caverns. Most of the nests contained eggs, some of which were 

 just hatching; a month later a number of grown but immature 



> Raimondi, A. M^moire sur le huano des isles de Chincba et les oiseaux qui le produisent. (Extralt.) 

 Compt. Rend. Acad. Sci., vol. 42, 1856, pp. 735-738. Paris. 1856. 



