NA TURE 



.APRIL 12, 190^ 



BIRD-LIFE AT THE SOUTH ORKNEY 

 ISLANDS. 

 T TURING the years 1903 and 1904 the Scottish National 

 Antarctic Expedition made important ornithological 

 n searches in the icy regions of the far south, and also at 

 1 li : remarkably remote island of Diego Alvarez, otherwise 

 (Jough Island, in the South Atlantic. In both, extensive 

 collections of birds were made, which were recently de- 

 scribed in 1 lie pages of the Ibis. 



The main scene of these investigations was at the South 

 Orkneys, a group of nure than a dozen islands lying some 

 600 miles south-east of the Falklands, and Which, though 

 discovered so long ago as 1821, had remained among the 

 least known lands within the South Polar seas. The 

 climate of this archipelago, in spite of its comparatively 

 low latitude (Go°-6i° S.), is essentially polar, the summer 

 temperature being much the same as in regions io° further 

 south, while in winter as many as 72° of frost were 

 registered. 



1 in Laurie Island, the second largest (30 square miles) 

 of the group, eleven months were spent by the expedition, 

 including the winter of 1903. During this period a number 

 ol interesting and valuable observations were made re- 

 lating to the native birds (some of them little known), their 

 habits, migrations, nidificatioh, and geo- 

 graphical distribution ; while the collections 

 formed enabled me to describe phases 

 previously quite unknown in the plumage 

 of several rare species, and also included 

 the eggs of forms never before obtained. 



Only a few birds essayed to winter, but 

 on the return of spring marvellous numbers 

 arrived to spend the summer and to rear 

 their young. 



The penguins were by far the most 

 numerous, and were 1 1 four kinds. The 

 Adobe (Pygoscelis ml, Inn) was the must 

 abundant, its numbers being estimated at 

 not [ess than five millions; the ringed 

 (/'. antarctica), which was previously re- 

 garded as nowhere common, evidently has 

 its metropolis at the South Orkneys, fin- 

 al least one million nested on Laurie 

 Island alone; while the gentoo (P. pnpna\ 



was less 111 111-, since it here nears the 



southern limit of its range. Another 

 species, the macaroni penguin (Catar- 

 rhactes chrysolophus), was found in very 

 small numbers, but it probably breeds 

 somewhere in the archipelago. The three 

 first mentioned species of penguin nested 

 in great " rookeries," some of which con- 

 tained several millions of inhabitants, and 

 extended as a broad belt lor two cr three 

 miles over elevated plateaux bordering the 

 sea. Their nests were constructed of small stones deliber- 

 ately collected one h\ one, and, on an average, there was 

 .1 nest to each square yard of the area occupied. 



Life in these great bird cities was not altogether a 

 happy one. The penguins are ill-natured and pugnacious 

 and woe betide the citizen who trespassed upon the 

 domain of his neighbours, 1 r the poor unfortunate who 

 had not secured a mate and ventured within the precincts 

 of the rookery. Then the bills of all the birds around 

 were turned against the intruders, and a fearful commotion 

 ensued which generally resulted in a free fight all round, 

 each pair of birds attacking their neighbour, and ended in 

 the rookery becoming a veritable pandemonium, rendered 

 hideous b) the harsh screeches of hundreds of thousands 

 ol voice-.. Sui h squabbles and their consequences, how- 

 ever, were 



down to snatch the same treasures from the much 

 persecuted parents. 



When courting, as one of the pictures shows, the 

 enamoured ones elevate their bills and utter their far from 

 musical love songs. They do this in unison, moving their 

 heads backwards and forwards or waving them (rum side 

 to side .ill the while. 



Next to the penguins, the petrels were the most numerous 

 of the bird inhabitants of the island. Of these, eight 

 species were present, most of which were nesting on the 

 sea cliffs, or on the steep screes springing from their 

 bases. On such sites was discovered the egg of the Cape 

 petrel or pigeon (Daption capensis), a bird well known to 

 voyagers for more than two hundred years, yet one which 

 had hitherto succeeded in hiding its plain white egg from 

 the gaze of oologists. Many of the eggs of this bird were 

 found on the ledges of the cliffs, but collecting them was 

 not a pleasant pursuit, for these birds, like some others of 

 their order, have the power of squirting a quantity of evil- 

 smelling oil at intruders, making good marksmanship at 

 8 feet. Fortunately the giant petrel (Ossijraga gigantea) 

 a bird as big as a goose, did not practise this art. other- 

 wise the taking of its egg would indeed have been an ordeal. 

 This species, too, sat close, and when pushed oil its nest, 

 which consisted of a great heap of stones, it vomited the 



Fig. i.-Adelie Penguins' Rookery on Crnplolite lshtd. 



contents of its gorged stomach, and thus lightened was able 

 to take wing. The other species resorting to the island for 

 a summer home and nursery were Wilson's petrel It ', eanites 

 oceanicus) and the ice petrel {Pagodroma nivea), both of 

 which are very abundant. A single pair of the black-bellied 

 storm petrel (Fregetta melanogaster) and their egg were 

 found, and thereby a remarkable extension southwards in 

 the previously known range of this species established. 

 Possibly two other petrels were nesting, namely, the 

 Am, in in .mil slender-billed fulmars (Thalassoeca antarctica 

 and Priocella glacialoides), and a whale bird (Prion 

 banksi) was seen off the islands, 



A tern (Sterna hirundinacea), a gull (Linus domini- 

 canus), and a skua (Megalestris antarctica) nested in the 

 vicinity of the shore, but the latter only was abundant. 

 tere trifles when compared with two scourges The blue-faced shag (Phalacrocorax atriceps), previously 

 ever present among the sitting birds. Foremost among not a well known spei ies in am respect, nested in numbers 

 these wen the savage gianl petrels, the greatest ol on islets oil the coast; and lastly we found another little 

 feathered ruffians, which wandered in numbers through- known species, namely, the white sheath-bill (Chionis 

 out the community gorging themselves to repletion on the alba), a remarkable bird distantly related to both the 

 eggs and young forcibly taken from the brooding penguins. ■ plovers and the gulls. It was quite common, and look up 

 1 lie second terror was the Antarctic skua, main 1 of which its quarters amid the nesting penguins, feeding on their 

 erhead, like so many harpies, and incessantly dead young and broken egos ; in fad, these birds wen 



^o. 1902, vol. 73 J 



