ON THE BIRDS OF THE SOUTH ORKNEY ISLANDS. 229 



ruffles the feathers on the back of its head and neck, draws back its head, and glares 

 viciously with eyes and bill wide open. When the old birds leave the nest to go down 

 to the water to bathe, it takes them a long time to make up their minds to enter the 

 sea, and a whole crowd collects and walks up and down the ice-foot. They lean over 

 the edge, as if about to dive, and then retire again and run off to another point to go 

 through the same performance. When one makes a plunge a number of others immediately 

 follow. After they dive they roll over and over in the water, and wash themselves 

 thoroughly with the aid of their feet, gradually getting rid of the red dirt with which 

 they are bespattered and smeared. On leaving the water they have to jump about 

 four feet to reach the rock or ice. They often attempt to do this in places which are 

 too high, and fall back into the water. 



The first young were found on December 6th, but probably some of these were 

 hatched on the 4th. Many were seen on the llth. On the 18th a mother penguin 

 was observed feeding her chicks. She bent her head until her bill was inclined about 

 45, with the lower mandible uppermost, and the chicks sucked in the semi-digested 

 food brought up, taking it from the hollow between the rami of the upper mandible. 

 When the young were older they were fed from the beak. Some young under a 

 fortnight old were found to have already a small geological museum of pebbles in their 

 stomachs. By January 7th, 1904, the young were beginning to lose their down. The 

 rookeries at that date were in a greater state of filth than ever, and the stench was 

 almost unbearable. On February llth not a single old bird was in the rookery or 

 in the bay, and only a very few young were seen. They had evidently all gone out 

 to sea. 



In 1904, Mr Mossman informs me, the first spring immigrants were noted on 

 October 8th, followed by several hundreds on the 14th, after which they were 

 continually arriving at the rookeries. On November 2nd the first egg was found, and 

 the first chick emerged on December 12th. 



The collections contain forty-five specimens, in all stages of plumage, from the 

 South Orkneys ; also a large number of eggs. 



As the various stages of plumage of this species have been carefully worked out 

 from the material collected by the Southern Cross Expedition, very little remains to 

 be said on the subject. I would remark, however, that of the thirty-four adult 

 specimens before me, obtained at all seasons, not one resembles the figure of the adult 

 bird on plate vii. of the Southern Cross collections. In all the South Orkney specimens 

 of this handsome species there is much less blue on the back, where black is the pre- 

 dominant colour, and the head and throat are almost entirely black, the feathers of the 

 head being merely tipped with blue. 



Immature birds show more blue and less black on the upper surface than adults. 

 Some obtained in February, and presumably about a year old, have the chin entirely 

 black, and the throat a mixture of black and white. And these same birds vary in the 

 extent of the black apical spot on the under surface of the wing : in some it is developed, 



