THE PENGUINS OF SOUTH GEORGIA 
flight. Sitting birds alone are stolid 
and fearless, refusing to be stampeded 
even after their eggs have been taken. 
The voice of an adult king penguin is 
a martial sound, a long-drawn bugle call, 
highly musical and almost worthy of 
being dubbed a tune. When delivering 
the call the bird stretches grandly to its 
full height, points its bill skyward, and 
the long volley rings forth from an 
expanded chest. At the close of the 
effort the head is tilted forward with a 
jerk and the bugler stands at attention — 
a rigid, artificial pose always held for 
several moments. The yearling pen- 
guin’s call is a clear whistle of three 
notes, as soft and sweet as the whistle 
of an oscine bird. 
The actions of “bachelor troops,” 
that is birds of both sexes which are 
neither molting nor incubating, furnish 
continual entertainment to an observer. 
Such bands frequently come out of the 
sea during the warmer parts of the day 
to sun themselves on the beaches. The 
birds sleep either prone or upright; if 
in the latter position, often with the bill 
turned behind the wing where ages ago 
the ancestors of penguins may have had 
305 
warm coverts. 
scrupulously 
They preen themselves 
and even perform the 
difficult stunt of balancing on one foot 
while they scratch their heads with the 
other. Their regimental characteristics, 
such as standing at attention, marking 
time, and marching in single file or in 
doubles, are very striking. 
As regards enemies, I judge that this 
species is little troubled by the skua gull, 
the scourge of the Johnny penguin 
rookeries. Its enemy in the ocean is the 
sea-leopard. From the stomach of one 
of these seals killed at the Bay of Isles, 
I took the remains of four king penguins, 
besides fish and other material. The 
magnitude of this breakfast may be 
more fully appreciated if I record that 
the weight of a mature king penguin 
in good condition averages forty-four 
pounds. 
Since South Georgia has been made a 
political dependency of the Falklands, 
the resident birds have come under the 
protection of law, but perhaps too late 
to save the king penguins because of the 
impracticability of enforcing legal re- 
straint along hundreds of miles of iso- 
lated uninhabited coast. 
Mimicking small brothers! 
wiggled their tails and hurried back into the pond 
I broke the spell by stooping to pat one on the head, when they all 
