224 ^^^^ Magazines, &c. [xsf April 



white iris, also by the colour of the throat, which is white instead 

 of black, the hne of white and black crossing the cheek below 

 the eye. It is not until the next moulting, at the end of a year, 

 in February or March, that they take on the plumage of the adult. 

 At the end of February the young can care for themselves ; they 

 leave the rookeries and ramble in groups along the coast. From 

 day to day their number diminishes. They leave in March, 

 going northward to dwell on the open sea. 



" The parents have done their work. Having laboured for 

 their offspring during four months, they must now think of them- 

 selves. Winter approaches ; they must form the new habit which 

 will enable them to endure bad weather. They go to rest on the 

 snow or in some crevice of the rocks, sheltered from the prevailing 

 winds. They remain there in the same place, without moving, 

 during the entire moulting season — that is to say, for 20 days. 

 They are compelled to live on their reserve fat. They become 

 unsightly, resembUng birds poorly stuffed, eaten by insects. 



" At the end of March, when the moulting is over, the birds in 

 small flocks gradually leave their city, to which they will again 

 return at the close of winter, after seven months' absence. 



" Finally, the last species, which, like the Adelie, is distributed 

 over the whole extent of the Antarctic continent, is the Emperor 

 Penguin {Aptenodytes forsieri), a bird of large size, sometimes 

 reaching a height of i meter 10 centimeters and a weight of 40 

 kilograms. It is a very beautiful bird ; its head is jet black ; on 

 each side of the head a band of golden-yellow diminishes gradually 

 toward the neck and ventral regions ; the back is bluish-grey, 

 the beak to the base of the mandibles purplish-rose. The 

 Emperor does not leave the polar regions, where the birds are 

 found in small groups on the icebergs. If two groups happen to 

 meet, the leaders bow to each other, lowering their beaks on their 

 breasts ; remaining in this position, they hold a long discourse ; 

 then, compliments having been exchanged, they raise their heads 

 and describe a great circle with their beaks. They act in the 

 same way toward men, who generally have great difficulty in 

 understanding this mimicry, obliging the Penguin to begin over 

 again. 



" The habits of this Penguin are very different from those of 

 the birds that we have just considered. The mode of reproduction 

 is very pecuhar, and has been ably studied by Mr. Wilson, 

 naturalist of the Discovery Expedition. It occurs in the dead of 

 winter, in the middle of the polar night, at the end of June, in cold 

 that may reach 50° C. below zero, when the Emperors gather 

 together near the continent, on a soHd iceberg, to lay a single 

 egg. There are no preparations, no nest. 



" To keep the egg off the ice, the Penguin places it on his feet, 

 held between his legs, protected by a fold of skin covered with 

 feathers at the base of the abdomen. As the incubation lasts 

 nearly two months, the birds, of which not many are engaged in 

 brooding, pass the egg to one another in turn. At the beginning 



