^°'l9^s'''"] NicHOLLS, S/udy of Penguins on The Nobhies, Vic. I33 



last remnants of down hanging to their new feathers. The 

 remains of the egg tooth were quite distinct in both birds. 



The birds under the bushes, when approached, would get up 

 and run away under adjacent clumps. Those birds in the 

 burrows, however, when molested too much, dug into the back 

 of the burrow and threw out the earth with a back kick of the feet. 

 The burrows were mostly shallow, one or two feet deep. In the 

 deeper holes, if the occupant was " at home," the presence of 

 blow-flies and a peculiar odour indicated the fact. The latter is 

 not to be easily described, but anyone who has slept in a Bass 

 Strait bed on a mattress made from undressed Mutton-Bird 

 feathers will readily recognize it. 



It is only when disturbed that a Penguin in the burrow will 

 call out during the day. Several times we heard a sharp " squark," 

 and upon investigation found that a rabbit had forced itself in 

 between two birds, and seemed quite at home. 



Based upon the rough calculation of 200 birds per acre, tliere 

 are probably not less than 10,000 Penguins in the Shelly Beach 

 rookery. 



The Headland Rookeries. 



These are situated upon the south-west corner of the island, 

 opposite The Nobbies (photographs Nos. g and i). We had not 

 the time to find out how far they extended along the coast-line. 

 But the whole of the steep cliffs on the sea front, as well as the 

 flat headland above for about two miles east in one direction and 

 at least a mile south in the other were tenanted by birds. About 

 a mile from The Nobbies one portion of the headland is traversed 

 by a deep ravine which the storm waters have excavated to a 

 width of 40 to 50 feet. In parts this gully is 15 to 20 feet deep. 

 The opening on the beach faces towards Flinders, on the mainland 

 opposite. From here it runs back into the headland for half a 

 mile or so, decreasing in width and depth. We found the Penguins 

 making use of it as a track leading to the rabbit-burrows and 

 tussocks inland. Many of these birds were over half a mile from 

 the sea. During the breeding season the labour of making the 

 daily journey to and from these nesting-sites must be extremely 

 hard upon the birds. Dr. Wilson, of Antarctic fame,22 Captain 

 Scott's beloved companion, has, however, recorded the Adelie 

 Penguin nesting 1,000 feet above sea-level on the sides of Mount 

 Erebus. Why birds whose enemies are in the sea should choose 

 such inaccessible spots to nest is a difficult problem to answer. 

 Probably it is a question of space and want of room, the burrows 

 on the sea front being taken up by the early comers, whilst the 

 later arrivals have to seek further inland. 23 



In one of the moulting burrows on the top of the headland we 

 found four birds — Nos. 34, 35, 36, 37 of tabulated hst. As they 

 illustrated the two "types" of the plumage phase, a photograph 

 was taken of them (photograph No. 11). " The smaller, dark- 

 coloured species " is on the right, " the larger, light -coloured 

 species " {E. minor) on the left of the picture. 



10 



