NOTES FROM THE SCOTTISH ZOOLOGICAL PARK 127 
NOTES FROM 
THE SCOTTISH ZOOLOGICAL PARK 
Tur Kine Pencuins.—The King Penguins, with the exception 
of the chick hatched in the Park, completed their moult early 
this year. The first bird commenced to moult on the 26th March 
and the last of the adults had shed all its old feathers by the 
tith of May. Last year the moulting began on the ist of 
April, approximately the same date as this year, but the last 
adult did not complete its moulting until about the middle of 
July. The chick, generally known as the “Baby,” began its 
first moult last year about the end of April and finished about 
the 23rd of May; while this year it did not begin until 20th June 
and finished on 12th July. The “ Baby,” after its first moult last 
year, entered a kind of intermediate phase of colouring, the areas of 
yellow on the sides of the head and throat being much restricted ; 
but this year it has acquired full adult colouring though the 
yellow patches are somewhat pale and lack the rich orange tint 
of the older birds. With King Penguins, at any rate in the 
Park, moulting is the preliminary to courtship and _ breeding, 
and as eggs have been produced for three years in succession 
now, confident anticipation has again been fulfilled, and two 
eges have been laid. Prior to egg laying, however, a domestic 
upheaval of considerable extent took place in the Penguin colony. 
The birds may be conveniently referred to by letters—A, B, and C 
being the three birds which arrived at the Park in 1914, and 
D and E two young ones which arrived early in 1917. A and C 
are the pair which hatched and reared the chick in the winter 
of 1919, and they had always seemed to be permanently mated 
to each other. D and E, which arrived together, and were 
apparently a pair, have also always been attached to each other, 
and were believed to be responsible for one of the eggs laid last 
year which proved to be infertile. B, the odd bird, has always 
been supposed to be a female, and was thought to have laid 
the other of the two eggs of last year. It is certain that B 
incubated the egg (which also was infertile) for a period of 
ten weeks without assistance from any of the other birds. This 
summer it was astonishing to find that after the moult had been 
completed, C, the supposed female, abandoned her mate A, and 
paired up with D, while E paired with B. In the case of D and E 
the rupture of the old association appeared to be a matter of 
