ADIELIE PENGUINS 



and adult, pale flesh pink above, black beneath (in 

 some cases piebald beneath). 

 " Claws, brown." 



In the majority of the chicks the down is 

 uniformly dark and sooty, but here and there, in 

 progeny of quite normal parents, one may find 

 nestlings of so pale a grey as to be almost silvery 

 white, with blackish heads, possibly a reversion to 

 an earlier type, and, at any rate, suggestive of the 

 young of the Emperor penguin, which perhaps 

 represents the oldest stock of all. According to 

 Dr. Bowdler Sharp, the colour of the head is in all 

 cases blacker in the earlier stages than the rest of 

 the body.* 



As the chick ages the colour of its down 

 changes, and all of it takes on a dull rusty brown 

 colour. As it moults the abdomen and thighs 

 change first, and white feathers appear in place of 

 the down. Then come changes on the head, round 

 the bill, and at the tail ; the upper breast, neck, and 

 back being the last parts to moult. 



The feet, which in the young nestling have been 

 almost black, change in colour to a brick-red that 

 shows up very markedly against the rusty brown 



* This was invariable at Cape A dare. 

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