THE BIRDS OF SOUTH GEORGIA 589 



fig. 2). Seen from the sea the rookeries present a characteristic appearance; the crowd 

 of white breasts of the birds surrounded by a dark green ring where the tussac grows 

 luxuriantly, and beyond the pale yellow-green of the ordinary tussac. The birds come 

 ashore to the rookeries in November and leave them by the beginning of May. The 

 following notes were made during a visit to a rookery between Cape Saunders and 

 Fortuna Bay on November 30th, 1925, to gather eggs which were then new laid. 



The rookery was situated on some steep sloping land at the top of the cliffs, with 

 cliffs rising again behind to a height of about a thousand feet. The penguins jump out 

 of the sea on to the rocks and hop up the cliff to the rookery. There are many thousands 

 of birds in the rookery and they are packed tight wherever there is standing room. 

 The noise they make is deafening, especially when they are disturbed by anyone walking 

 through the rookery, and the smell of it is beyond description. Individually the birds 

 have a strong goaty smell. Their nests are made of small stones, or of mud and tussac, 

 but many of the eggs are laid on the loose stones of the rookery without any nest. The 

 main part of the rookery where the birds are most thickly congregated is quite bare, 

 but I saw odd birds among the tussac on the mountain cliff as high up as about eight 

 hundred feet above the sea. As we walked through the rookery most of the birds 

 moved aside to let us pass, making all the while a tremendous braying, but a few of 

 them would not leave their eggs, which they defended stoutly with their bills and 

 flippers. Though they were thickly packed it was apparent that they were all in pairs. 



Their voice is very loud, something like the trumpeting of the Gentoo Penguin, but 

 much harsher and deeper. The two birds of each pair were frequently to be seen 

 braying to each other. When they did this they held their flippers widely open, pointing 

 upwards and backwards at an angle of about 45 degrees from the shoulder. They then 

 stretched the head up and threw it back so that the beak was pointing up into the sky 

 behind them, and started calling. All the time that they were braying the head was 

 moved from side to side with a wriggling motion, so that the tip of the bill nearly 

 touched the tip of each upraised flipper alternately. This bout of braying was usually 

 preceded by both birds of the pair bowing to each other so that the bill touched the 

 ground, and when their heads were close together like this they gave a low grunt. 

 Frequently they repeated this after braying. 



There is only one egg to each pair and it varies greatly in size and shape, from short 

 and round to long and pointed. When the birds are walking about the rookery or 

 hopping up and down the cliffs they hold their flippers in front of them, but as soon 

 as they stop moving they hold them elevated behind them (Plate LV, fig. 3). In climbing 

 up the cliff they hop from point to point, making quite long jumps, and when scrambling 

 up a difficult bit they use the bill to help them. Even when hurried they were not seen 

 to toboggan as the other penguins do. They are very quarrelsome, pecking each other 

 and walloping each other with the flippers unmercifully ; any bird walking through the 

 rookery comes in for a shower of pecks and blows from all his neighbours as he passes. 

 Many of the birds get very dirty with the mud in the rookery, which is very wet, as 

 several small streams descend the cliff behind. There were many Skuas flying round 



