THE LIFE AND HABITS OF PENGUINS. 253 



sucks up the serai-digested food, brought up from her stomach, out of the hollow 

 between the rami of the upper mandible." The young have voracious appetites, and 

 grow rapidly. It was a funny sight to see a poor emaciated parent being chased by two 

 fat chicks as big as herself, demanding loudly to be fed, with cries of Mad, Mad, like a 

 young lamb. The young birds have several enemies, and the death-rate must be high. 

 While skuas do not neglect the chicks, most of their depredations are on the eggs. 

 Giant Petrels (Ossifraga gigantea), on the other hand, are greedy for young penguins. 

 On the outskirts of a rookery there are always a number of these birds lying asleep 

 after a gorge, or waddling to and fro in a state of repletion, unable to fly. 



When about a month old the chicks begin to lose their down, and at this time 

 present a very bedraggled appearance, for the rookeries by then are like quagmires. 

 The birds are caked all over with mud and dirt, and the stench is abominable. When 

 the wind was in the right quarter a rookery at that season could be smelt more than a 

 mile away. 



The casting of the down commences on the breast and under parts of the body, 

 neck, and flippers, and then on the dorsal aspects, the last parts to cast being generally 

 above the root of the tail and at the base of the flippers, and finally the crown of the 

 head. When the moulting is complete the young birds rapidly take to the water, and 

 then the parents leave them to shift for themselves. They are about six weeks old 

 when this happens, and the parents show no reluctance to abandon their young ; in fact, 

 they occasionally do so rather prematurely. Clumps of ten or twenty very forlorn- 

 looking youngsters may often be seen on the rookeries, left by the adults, but a little 

 timid of trusting to their own resources. In their defenceless state the young birds pay 

 a heavy toll to the giant petrels, skuas, and gulls. 



The Sheathbill probably never attacks the chicks nor does it seize eggs, but haunts 

 the rookeries on the look out for offal. 



Once their parental duties are over the old birds quickly fatten. Early in February 

 they had altogether lost their emaciated look, and were stout and prosperous again, 

 scaling some sixteen or seventeen pounds. By the middle of that month they had 

 deserted the rookeries and put to sea their normal habitat. In the water the penguin 

 has only one enemy, the sea-leopard, which has been seen to come up alongside a floe, 

 seize a penguin in its huge jaws, and sweep down with its prey. At other times the 

 Sea-leopard chases the penguin in the water as the bird darts torpedo-like through the 

 sea before its enemy. 



Further notes on the habits of penguins, more especially with regard to nesting, 

 will be found in the previous paper by Mr Eagle Clarke (pp. 223-233). Mr Clarke's 

 notes were compiled from observations supplied by the leader and other naturalists 

 of the Scotia. 



