THE EMPEROR PENGUIN. 27 



chicks, is quite trying ; and, as they appeared to feel the cold in the observatories on 

 the upper deck, we had to keep our captive chicks below (figs. 21, 22, p. 28). 



The result was that, as their foster-parents, we were roused from sleep at least three 

 times every night, and after turning out of a warm bunk, had to masticate seal meat 

 for about twenty minutes each time till the imperious chickens' appetite was subdued. 

 Crushed amphipods were tried, but appeared to have so little food stuft' in them that 

 the more solid seal meat was again resorted to. For several weeks, however, before 

 the last bird finally succumbed, it was evident that it was not thriving on this diet, 

 and eventually it died with the bones distorted as in an acute stage of rickets. 



It used to be constantly preening its downy feathers, and then, standing upright, 

 would crane its neck and quickly flap its wings backwards and forwards as one sees a 

 young duckling do, making a quaint subdued little crowing noise at the same time 

 (fig. 21, p. 28). The movements of the eyes and eyelids were most peculiar, the eyes 

 being so set in the head of the chick that, without turning sideways, it could see every - 

 thinw above it. Owing to the absence of any eyebrows the cornea was almost flush 

 with the convex outline of the head, which was covered by a very short and velvety 

 down. The legs were set widely apart (fig. 18, p. 26), and with the capacious abdomen 

 and the immense beam of the hind quarters formed a most stable support for the agile 

 neck and for the head, which was shot in various directions with great rapidity, the bird 

 being exceedingly inquisitive and ever ready to peck and worry at an intruding hand. 



In feeding it was sufficient to touch the upper bill to make the mouth open widely, 

 the act of swallowing being continued so long as there was any room for more food 

 in the distensible stomach (fig. 16, p. 24). The same wriggling and craning motions 

 that one sees in hawks and owls were used to assist the passage of an extra bulky bolus. 

 The head was then violently shaken from side to side to get rid of adherent pieces 

 or, if necessary, to get rid of an extra bolus which had gone halfway down, but for 

 which there had been found insufficient room below. If it was turned over on its 

 back the chick had very great difficulty in righting itself again. 



This particular chicken, as I have said, became very weak and ailing in its third 

 month, and died on December 10th after three months' captivity. It had not then 

 begun to change the down, nor were there any signs of the approach of the natal 

 moult. This in one way was satisfactory, though one would have wished to have kept 

 the bird alive until the moult commenced. It proved, however, conclusively that the 

 chickens had been removed by their parents from the rookery at Cape Crozier when 

 they were still in downy plumage ; consequently they could not have entered the 

 water, and the journey must have been undertaken on floating ice, as we surmised from 

 what I have described above in speaking of the migration of the adults. 



In general character the egg of the Emperor Penguin approaches that of the King 

 (see fig. 24, p. 30). It has the same broadly pyriform shape, but the minute character of 

 the surface is slightly different, not only in the fresh state, but also in such as have been 

 weathered through exposure to sun and wind. The size of the egg varies much, from 



VOL. II. H 



