Aves. 1 25 



From the ' SoiUJicrii Gross ' Expedition, I have received the series 

 of specimens recorded above, but no notes of any kind, beyond the 

 record of the soft parts on the labels. The entire series seems to 

 have been preserved by Mr. Evans, and no notes by Mr. Hanson 

 have reached me. That he must have devoted some study to the 

 species is certain, as he was always most interested in the moulting 

 and changes of plumage in bird — witness his beautiful series of Eider 

 Ducks {Somatcria mollissima) and Black Guillemots (Cc2)phtos gryllc) 

 procured off the Norwegian coasts, and now in tlie British Museum. 

 He also kept a living Adelia Penguin in a box (see his ' Diary,' supra, 

 p. 95), in order to study the moult. Mr. Borchgrevink also writes : 

 " Half an hour before he died, the first Penguin came back. Enthu- 

 siastic as he had always been in his calling, he asked to see the bird, 

 and, on its being brought to him, he was delighted to examine it." 

 Dr. Klovstad told me that Hanson had been much interested in the 

 changes of plumage undergone ]}y the Penguin, and, on examining 

 the tail-feathers of the above-mentioned specimen, he pronounced it 

 to be an " old bird." Whether the development of the tail or the 

 l)lack throat were the points whicli Hanson was indicating, we cannot 

 now determine, without his note-books. In his private ' Diary ' there 

 are not many observations concerning the Adelia Penguins, and it is 

 possible that his account of the species was in one of the missing 

 note-books. 



Mr. Hugh Evans tells me that his own note-books were delivered 

 up to the commander, when the ship arrived at Stewart Island on the 

 return voyage. He gave special attention to the habits of the species, 

 and hoped that I should find his account of some interest. No note- 

 books have been submitted to me ; but, in answer to some of my 

 inquiries, Mr. Evans has been kind enough to write me a letter, with 

 some remarks about the Penguins, which are deserving of quotation : 

 " Your letter is rather a difficult one to answer, from the scanty data 

 I have in my possession. Eeferring to the first question you ask me 

 concerning the time the Adelia Penguin takes to get its full plumage, 

 it only takes one year for the great majority of them ; for we only 

 came across a few isolated instances of birds having come to Cape 

 Adare with the crowd, still with their throats not quite covered with 

 black feathers, which seems to be the last stage of their change from 

 young to adult plumage. The birds I took on January 15-22, 1900, 

 were all that season's young. There was a great difference of time 

 between the hatching of the first and last young birds ; the first 

 being hatched out on the 9th of December, and the last ones not until 



