AND OTHER BIRDS 63 



Chapter IX. 



THE BLUE PENGUIN. 



)HE Blue Penguin breeds very pleuti- 

 fnllv aloim- the shores of the inlets of 

 Stewart Island, and upon the small, 

 wooded knolls, rocks, and islets that 

 add so nnich tcj their beauty. On the 

 outer islands the nests are less numerous, and 

 generally sj^'aking this small Penguin is most 

 common on the more sheltered waters. In 

 Paterson Inlet we were constantly steaming 

 through or past their little conununities, the 

 birds usually swimming slowly and with hardly 

 more than head above water. At the launch's 

 near approach each bird would disappear by a 

 nod of the head — for the diving movement was 

 scarcely more — and a slightly deeper submersion 

 of the body. The dive, in fact, was often so 

 shallow that in calm weather the bird's direc- 

 tion could be distinctly traced by the heave of 

 the widening water arrow-head that spread in 

 in the little swimmer's wake. 



The Blue Penguin begins to lay a week or 

 fortnight later than his cousin of the Yellow-eye. 

 At any rate, during the third week of Sej^tember, 

 no eggs were discovered although fresh burrows 

 were found, sometimes unoccupied, sometimes 

 containing a single bird, and once a pair of birds. 



