Letters, Extracts, and Notes. 295 



Dr. Edward A. Wilson, Assistant Surgeon of the ( Discovery,' 

 who, in an address on the " Life-history of the Emperor 

 Penguin " (Aptenodytes forsteri) , gave an interesting account 

 of some of that bird's peculiarities. lie said that before the 

 National Antarctic Expedition nothing was known of its lit'e- 

 history, except that it did not leave the ice; and the only 

 one of its eggs that had been seen had a somewhat shaky 

 history. Though the Penguin had now lost its wings, there 

 were reasons to believe that at one period its ancestors had 

 been able to fly; thus it still retained the habit of tucking 

 its head under its wing when asleep, although that wing was 

 about as comforting as the lid of a cigar-box. Still, this 

 habit shewed signs of losing its force, for sometimes a 

 Penguin was seen to be asleep with its head drawn down on 

 its neck — a more suitable attitude from the point of view 

 of protection from the cold. The egg or chick was carried 

 about and kept off the ice by being supported on the foot of 

 the parent, but the lecturer objected to the use of the word 

 " pouch '"' in this connection; a fold or lappet of heavily 

 feathered skin did fall from the parent's abdomen over the 

 chick, which might sometimes be quite concealed, but the 

 word " pouch " was not an accurate description of the 

 arrangement. At the Penguin-rookery which Dr. Wilson 

 visited at Cape Crozier he reckoned that the mortality of the 

 chicks was about seventy-seven per cent. Of those that died 

 he should suppose that no less than half were killed by kind- 

 ness. Adult Penguins had an overpowering desire to sit on 

 something, and as they were in numbers largely in excess 

 of the young, whenever a chick appeared there was a wild 

 rush for the privilege of nursing it, and in the struggle the 

 chick often came to harm. The young Penguin, born in the 

 coldest month of the Antarctic winter, shed its down when 

 five months old, and a year later had a second moult, after 

 which the adult bird appeared in all its glory. 



The lecture was illustrated by a number of photographs 

 shewing Emperor Penguins singly and in groups, their 

 rookery at Cape Crozier, and their development from the 

 egg to full growth. — Times, Jan. 28, 1905. 



