NARRATIVE OF THE CRUISE. 357 



not noticed ; but it is possible also that the Fly does not extend there, for no Teal were 

 seen on Marion Island, though they exist in abundance on the Crozets, and 

 especially on Possession Island, where, as the sealers said, there is a lake full of them. 

 However, only a very small tract of Marion Island was examined, and similar tracts are to 

 be found in Kerguelen Island, with very few Cabbages, and consequently without Teal. 

 A wingless Gnat (Ilalirytus amphibius) also inhabits the sea shore, living amongst 

 the seaweed constantly wetted by the tide. A similar wingless Gnat, and a Fly 

 apparently closely allied to the Kerguelen Amcdopteryx, were found by the Expedition 

 at the Falkland Islands. 1 A Spider (Myro kerguelenensis, Cambr.), already described 

 from the Transit of Venus Expedition, 2 was obtained. 



The Teal of Kerguelen Island (Querqiiedula eatoni) is peculiar to that island 

 and the Crozets ; it is somewhat larger than the common English Teal, and of a 

 brown colour, with a metallic blue streak, and some little white on the wing. It 

 is enormously abundant all about Kerguelen Island, near the coast ; four or five guns 

 Used to bring back usually over 100 birds. They feed mainly on the fruit of the 

 Kerguelen Cabbage, and are extremely good eating. They are to be found in flocks, 

 except when breeding, when they occur in pairs ; where they have not been shot at by 

 sealers, they are remarkably tame, and almost require to be kicked up to afford a shot. 

 Several of them were breeding at the time of the visit ; some with young full-fledged 

 and already away from the nest, others with eggs. Five eggs were found in one nest. 

 The nest is a neat one, placed under a tuft of grass, and lined with down torn from the 

 breast of the parent bird. The duck, when put up off the nest, to effect which the 

 nest requires to be almost trodden upon, or when found with her young away from the 

 nest, flutters a few yards only, as if maimed, and pitches again, and cannot be frightened 

 into a long- flight. It is curious that the bird should have retained this instinct where 

 there are no four-footed or human enemies ; possibly she finds it a successful ruse when 

 the brood is attacked by the Skuas, to which ever-watchful enemies the young must con- 

 stantly fall a prey, for in most cases only a single young one was found following the 

 mother. There were no young met with in the condition of. flappers, and the general 

 breeding season was probably only about to begin, as was the case with many birds of the 

 island ; the greater part of them were yet in flocks. 



The whole beach was covered with droves of the Johnny Penguin (Aptenodytes 

 [Pygosceles] tceniatus) and the King Penguin (Aptenodytes longirostris) , and encamp- 

 ments of these birds were to be seen on small level grassy spaces far up the hill slope. 

 On the talus slopes beneath the cliffs, along the whole south side of Christmas Harbour, 

 are vast Penguin rookeries, the Penguins here nesting amongst the stones where vegeta- 



1 A Moth with rudimentary wings (Embryonopsis halticeUa, Eaton) was found by the Transit of Venus Expedition 

 at Kerguelen; see Phil. Tram., extra vol. clxviii. pp. 228, 235, 1879. 



2 Phil. Trans., extra vol. clxviii. p. 225, 1879. 



