NARRATIVE OF THE CRUISE. 297 



rookeries for moulting birds, for birds in clean plumage not breeding, and again for 

 breeding birds. Here the breeding ground was quite separate and the young and breed- 

 ing pairs were confined to this smaller sheltered area. This was the only King Penguin 

 rookery seen in full activity during the entire voyage ; at Kerguelen Island the King 

 Penguins were only met with in scattered groups of a dozen or twenty, and they 

 were not breeding, but moulting. On this breeding ground, at its lower portion, 

 numbers of Penguins were reclining on their bellies, and it was thought at first they 

 might be covering eggs, but on driving them up, they were seen to be only resting. 

 There was a drove of about a hundred Penguins with young birds amongst them. The 

 young were most absurd objects; they were as tall as their parents, and moved about 

 bolt upright with their beaks in the air in the same manner. They were covered 

 with a thick coating of a light chocolate down, looking like very fine brown fur, which 

 was at least two inches deep on the birds' bodies, and gave them a curious inflated 

 appearance. They had a most comical appearance, as they ran off to jostle their 

 way in amongst the old ones ; they seemed to run rather better than the adults. 

 Absurd in appearance as were these young, those that were just dropping the down 

 and assuming the white plumage of the adults were far more so. Some were to be seen 

 with the brown down in large irregular patches, and the white feathers showing out 

 between these. In others the down remained only about the neck and head, and 

 in the last stage a sort of ruff or collar of brown remained sticking out round the 

 bird's neck, and then, when it cocked up its head, it looked like a small boy in 

 stick-up collars. The birds in this stage of moulting had a peculiar expression of 

 vanity, and as they ran off on their short stumpy legs, it was impossible to resist 

 laughing outright. At the farthest corner of the breeding space, in the most sheltered 

 spot, was a clump of birds, a hundred or more, most of them in a slightly stoop- 

 ing posture, and with the lower part of their bodies bulged out in a fold in front. 

 When these birds were approached and bullied with a stick they shifted their ground 

 a bit, with an awkward sort of hopping motion, with the feet held close together. 

 The idea immediately suggested itself that they were carrying eggs with them, in 

 accordance with the peculiar habit of this species as described in works on natural 

 history. Their gait was quite peculiar, and different from the ordinary one, and 

 evidently laboured and difficult. One of them was struck with a stick, and after some 

 little provocation she let her egg drop from her pouch, and then at once assumed the 

 running motion. These birds carry their egg in a pouch between their legs, and hold it in 

 by keeping their broad webbed feet tucked close together under it. They make absolutely 

 no nest, or even mark from habitually sitting in one place, but simply stand on the rookery 

 floor in the stooping position above described, and shift their ground a little from time 

 to time, as occasion requires. The egg is probably not dropped till the young one begins 

 to break the shell. Charles Goodridge, who was one of a searching party on the island 

 (narr. chall. exp. — vol. i. — 1884.) 38 



