AND OTHER BIRDS 59 



Many species can only afford to lose their 

 feathers, and especially their larger feathers, 

 gradually and systematically in pairs, and of 

 the many differences between the Penguin and 

 other birds none is more marked perhaps than 

 the manner of his moult. His vast accumulation 

 of fat enables him to endure for long a com- 

 fortable starvation embowered in greenery. 



The Yellow-eyed Penguin and the small Blue 

 Penguin are both very plentiful about the north 

 end of Stewart Island, the former, the more 

 pelagic bird, preferring the open sea and placing 

 its rookeries on islands or on the edges of the 

 main island's outer shores. Almost any dry 

 slope or knoll in the forest makes a suitable 

 nesting site; it is the landing place which has 

 to be chiefly considered, and parts of the beach 

 are selected, where the birds coming up from the 

 sea can enter straight into the bush, and avoid 

 the stretches of soft sand and shingle, particu- 

 larly irksome to a bird whose method of progres- 

 sion is by hopping. Inland and away from the 

 clean beaches the Penguin paths are very slimy 

 and slippery and smooth with the traffic of the 

 heavy birds. The smaller undergrowth is com- 

 pletely trodden out, and the air always per- 

 meated with an oily odour. When a meeting 

 between the two takes place usually the birds 

 give place to the larger animal, man ; but on one 

 occasion, whilst descending a very steep path, 

 worn by bird use and rain into a deep rut, we 

 met a couple of Yellow-eyed birds half way up. 

 One of them, after very long consideration, 

 sloped off by easy stages to the sea. The other 

 who had not yet completed his moult, and upon 

 whom were still many patches of unshed felt, 



