'^°iV'o'^'] Stuart-Sutiiicklani), Penguins. JJ 



when all the chicks were too far advanced, and it was then too 

 late to make further observations on this very interesting point. 

 Hutton says that in the young the chin and throat are greyish- 

 white ; but after examining about three dozen young ones I am 

 able to say that this is wrong, as in all those seen these parts were 

 decidedly a dull black (see photograph of young one about ten 

 days old). 



Young of the Thick-billed Penguin, showing black chin and throat. 



No trace of any nest — not even a stick, stone, or hollow — was 

 found. The eggs were in some instances in an inch of mud, and 

 the sitting birds, bespattered and stained, were maintaining 

 positions as nearly upright as possible. One and two eggs were 

 the usual clutches, although one was seen with three, one of which 

 was very large (3.3 inches in length), and the others very small 

 (2.3 and 2.4 inches respectively). It was interesting to watch 

 the parent carrying the chick in her beak to escape the human 

 marauders. One was' reminded of a cat carrying a kitten. 



By the end of September the cave was deserted, and no more 

 notice was taken of it ; but when passing on our way to the 

 fishing grounds on 13th December, 1919, nearly four months 

 after the first visit, the loud, hurried, screaming cries of Penguins 

 w^ere heard, and we put ashore to investigate. About twenty of 

 these bjrds were found, but our greatest discovery was that of 

 eggs. Eggs in all stages of incubation, judging by the feel, were 

 strewn in every direction — in the mud, in crevices in the rocks, 

 and under ledges — in every case plentifully spattered with the 

 sticky mud. This is the first time that the fact of Penguins 

 nesting twice in one yeqr has been recorded, as far as I can learn. 

 I was much struck with the grand condition of the birds observed, 

 and again noted the fact that absohitely no nest of any description 



