88 SoutJiern Cross. 



another bird of the same kind, ))ut of a darker colour, in our wake ; but 

 this bird disappeared suddenly, and all our attention was turned to the 

 one on the floe. This sat quite still, undisturbed by the noise made by 

 the ship as it worked its way through the ice nearer to it. All at once 

 the Penguin, which we had seen in our wake, shot up out of the water and 

 on to the floe on which the first Penguin was sitting. When the two 

 birds met, they greeted each other and opened a conversation, gesticu- 

 lating in a most funny manner. It was curious to observe the power of 

 location these birds possessed even under water, as shown by the fact 

 that this last coiner could at once find the floe where its mate was sitting. 

 The distance it had to swim under water was about 200 yards, and, as 

 far as we saw, it was not above water once during its journey. When 

 we were about 200 yards distant the birds showed signs of fear, and I 

 fired two shots at each of them from the forecastle-head ; but both set 

 off as if nothing was the matter with them. One of them — the one 

 first seen — broke down, however, before it reached the water and fell 

 dead on the ice. Then, with a couple of men, I jumped on to the ice 

 to reclaim the dead bird, while the other bird dived and disappeared 

 among the pieces of ice. While the men brought the bird on board, I 

 inspected the place where it had been sitting. All over the floe, feathers 

 were thickly scattered, and round the ice-hummock, behind which the bird 

 had been sitting, a path had been trodden, as the bird had apparently 

 shifted its position in order to be sheltered from the wind, for, as I found 

 afterwards, it was moulting, and for that reason was probably very 

 sensitive to cold. These birds do not change their plumage like other 

 species, but more in the way in which snakes cast their skins, the new 

 skin being ready before the old one is cast ofi". In the same way with 

 these birds. The quill of the old feather is connected with the top of 

 the new feather by a skin capsule ; the new feather begins to grow under 

 the quill of the old feather and pushes it before it until the new feather 

 is fully developed, when the old one loosens and drops oflT, together witli 

 the capsule which connected the two feathers. The old feather is so 

 loose that it drops off when stroked by the hand. During the moulting 

 the Penguins apparently do not like to go into the water. How long this 

 bird had stayed on the floe I could not judge, owing to the short time 

 which I had to make my observations. 



As soon as this specimen was brought on board, I observed the other 

 bird sitting crouching with its head down between the shoulders, on a 

 piece of ice further ahead of us. The ship was steered in its direction, 

 and, as we approached it, I could see the blood trickling down from a 

 wound in its side. I again gave it two shots, and so added another 

 Emperor Penguin to my collection. This bird had finished its moulting, 

 and was very pretty in its new plumage. The first bird was a female, 

 the second a male. 



January l^th. — The animal life has been proportionally plentiful 

 around us to-day, as we have killed seven White Seals (of these five fell 

 to my rifle and two to Borchgrevink's). We have also seen a couple of 

 Whales and some Penguins, and more of the birds we are accustomed to 

 see every day. The Seals wei-e all moulting and their stomachs were 

 quite empty. Twice we found three together. The seventh jumped up 

 on the ice as the ship was passing through a long lane. To judge from 



