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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



steamer. This, 1 imagine, is seldom 

 if ever done, however, as few of the 

 passengers know of the })r()ximity of 

 hirds in such numbers. 



Although we entered the harbor on a 

 bright sunny day and there were tens of 

 thousands of penguins within ten miles 

 of our anchorage, the only ones seen 

 were a few dozen birds basking on a 

 sandy beach near the entrance to the 

 harbor. We found some of the nests of 

 the penguins well lined with an abun- 

 dance of twigs and small sticks, while 

 others were merely shallow holes 

 scratched in the ground. The common 

 sea-bird trait of stealing its neighbor's 

 nesting material was practiced when- 

 ever opportunity offered. Some birds 

 more timid than others left their nests 

 before we came near. Their bolder 

 neighbors quickly took advantage of 

 this action and began to rob the de- 

 serted nests of all the nesting material. 

 There was a vast difference between the 

 hurried snatching of a mouthful of 

 twigs near by in a neighbor's nest, and 

 the calm, judicial, unhurried selection 

 of a desirable stick when an old pen- 

 guin would stroll out from the rookery 

 to gather additional lining for his 

 nest. 



When the birds of the entire colony 

 ^^'ere driven from their nests, some of 

 them started off down the long lane 

 toward the broad sandy beach a mile 

 away. Others moved off a short dis- 

 tance and stood about until the e^^ 

 gathering was over, and then promptly 

 returned to their despoiled nests. When 

 the sailors left for the boat, I went 

 down to the beach where the penguins 

 landed, but in a couple of hours re- 

 turned to the rookery and observed four 

 fresh eggs laid during my walk. I 

 heard some weeks later that not a single 

 egg was hatched in this colony, all 

 being gathered by some one of the sev- 

 eral eggers that visited it during the 

 season. 



The absence of land birds in the 

 day's walk was quite noticeable, but the 



lack of trt'cs on the islands accounts in 

 large measure for that. The close 

 cropping and destruction of the tussac 

 grass by sheep on all but outlying islets 

 has driven the wren and tussac birds 

 particularly away from the inhabited 

 areas. On Kidney Island, fifteen miles 

 away from Port Stanley, both these 

 species were common although they 

 were never seen about the town, and the 

 wren especially was described to me as 

 \'ery rare by the Colonial Secretary 

 when he delivered my collecting permit 

 to me. 



Hearing in Port Stanley of the nu- 

 merous swans, grebes, ducks, geese, 

 ])enguins, and various other birds that 

 inhabited Bleaker Island about seventy- 

 five miles to the southward of town, I 

 determined to run down there, and 

 hired a sloop for that purpose. The 

 first night out of town we anchored at 

 East Island, where I obtained fine sets 

 of eggs of the beautiful pink-breasted 

 black-headed gulls and the many skuas, 

 and discovered also two turkey vul- 

 tures' nests tucked away down at the 

 foot of clumps of tussac grass each 

 within a few feet of jackass penguin 

 burrows. One little knoll harbored sev- 

 eral tame rabbits which the owners of 

 the island had liberated, and adjoining 

 the rabbit knoll was a rocky headland 

 which a colony of black-necked shags 

 was using for nesting purposes. It was 

 the most accessible site of that species 

 I had ever discovered. Although hun- 

 dreds of nests had been noticed on 

 various islands, they were almost invari- 

 ably over the water on sheer or over- 

 hanging cliffs, frequently in caves and 

 virtually unapproachable. I took photo- 

 graphs of several nests ; I also collected 

 one or two birds, simply by grabbing 

 the neck of the desired specimen and 

 gathering him in as does the market 

 man his caged poultry. 



We left next day and reached our 

 destination late in the afternoon. Bleaker 

 Island, al)out twelve miles long by one 

 wide, is devoted wholly to sheep raising, 



