THE BIRDS OF SOUTH GEORGIA 587 



there is a difference of several days in the ages of the young: this causes a marked 

 difference in size, as they grow very rapidly. If the eggs are taken, a second set is laid, 

 and in some of the rookeries that are much visited by the whalers to collect eggs for 

 eating, as many as four or five layings are produced. The later layings consist of only 

 one egg instead of two, and it is smaller in size than the first ones. Egg collecting may 

 delay the hatching until February. While incubating the birds sit on the breast with the 

 flippers held along the sides of the body. Both sexes incubate (Plate LIV, fig. 3). 



When the young (Plate LIV, fig. 4) are hatched they are covered in short grey down, 

 darker on the back of the head and lighter on the under parts. They are very weak 

 and helpless. The front half of the bill is blue-grey, the rest pink, and the egg-tooth is 

 buff' (Plate XLVII, fig. 10). The feet are pinkish grey and the iris dark brown. The cry 

 of the new-hatched young is a very feeble and shrill piping. When the young are a few 

 days old the second down coat starts to grow and the first down adheres to the ends of 

 the down feathers until worn off. The second coat (Plate LV, fig. i) is grey dorsally 

 and white ventrally, and by the time the bird is half grown the bill is pink with the 

 upper part black, the tip of the mandible being buff with a black mark just behind it. 

 The iris is brown (Plate XLVII, fig. 11). The egg-tooth is not shed until the young is 

 nearly full grown. At first the parents brood the young, which like to nestle underneath, 

 until they are so big that they can only get their heads under. The young ask for food 

 by putting up the head and piping, and nibbling the parent's throat and neck. The 

 parent regurgitates the food into the throat and opens the bill and the young puts its 

 head in as far as it can. When the young are about three-quarters grown they leave 

 the nests, which get trodden down nearly level with the ground, and herd together under 

 the charge of a few adult nurses. As soon as an old one returns from the sea they all 

 start pestering it for the food, which it is at first usually reluctant to part with. Finally 

 it feeds one or two and then leaves again. On sunny days the young appear to feel the 

 heat considerably and stand about panting, almost gasping, for breath. This is probably 

 due as well to the strong ammoniacal vapours which rise from the ground of the rookery 

 when it is heated. The fumes are very concentrated near the ground, as one finds if one 

 sits down in the rookery. Early in February the young start shedding the down, which 

 comes off in patches, leaving exposed the adult plumage which has grown underneath. 

 They are still fed by the parents for a short time after all the down has been shed, 

 and take to the water in March. Their feet and bills after the moult are similar to those 

 of the old ones, but considerably paler. 



When swimming about the penguins only bring the head and tail out of the water 

 when they come up to breathe, but when making a passage they leap out of the water 

 at intervals, jumping out like porpoises. During the leap the flippers are held out from 

 the sides. In landing on the beach they shoot out of the water, landing on their feet, 

 and shake themselves, look round, and waddle away. If there is much surf running 

 they cannot jump out in this way and sometimes have considerable difficulty in 

 scrambling out of the breakers. In entering the sea they walk down the beach with the 

 flippers held out behind and the neck bent forward until they are in the water, when 



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