I34 ON THE BREEDING OP SOME SEA BIRDS. 



EuDTPTULA MINOR, Forster. 



This Penguin was found breeding on Southport Island and on 

 the Great Actaeon on the occasion of both my visits. They excavate 

 a hole in the ground of varying depth from three to six feet, 

 and form a largish cavity at the end for the eggs ; in some 

 places have two. Among the dense, matted herbage, in the 

 centre of the Actseon Islands I found the nest under cover of a 

 thick roof of vegetation, with an entrance to it formed uuder the 

 same, like a tunnel. Here I found the birds carrying on an 

 extraordinary "corroboree" of growls and hoarse crowings, the 

 performers being outside their nests, while the young were 

 hidden beneath the herbage, the comical situation appearing to 

 be that the birds were groaning over the tedious duties of 

 maternity, "while their spouses were busy far away at sea in 

 pursuing their prey. Two eggs are laid, one, probably the 

 first, being nearly always soiled with earth, or blood- 

 stained. They are pointed ovals in shape, some more tapering 

 than others ; the texture is usually smooth, but there are 

 chalky excrescences in some. A series of about a dozen 

 measure from 2' 18 to 2-39 inches in length, and from 1-54 to 

 1"69 inches in breadth. 



These Penguins run with considerable speed, particularly 

 when pursued, for half-a-dozen yards, and then fall forward, 

 lifting themselves up again with their wings, and again making 

 another rush onward. They pi'oceed under water with great 

 speed, literally flying with their rudimentary wings, their 

 course consisting of a series of zigzag darts, which must prove 

 highly effectual in the capture of their prey. 



The fisherman have, I am sorry to say, a cruel antipathy to 

 these defenceless birds, and delight in taking them from their 

 nests and worrying them with their dogs. They fight 

 dexterously against their tormentors, and I have seen one keep 

 two terriers off when attacked in a pool of water. Last year 

 a party of men visited the Actasons on the 20th of November, 

 whether from Eecherche or Southport is a matter of un- 

 certainty, and with inconceivable barbarity set the islands on 

 fire, roasting alive the unfortunate Penguins, which were 

 breeding in large numbers on the north end of the Grreat 

 Actseon, and when I visited the island the week following I 

 found the ground strewn with roasted carcases of the birds. 

 This is such wanton cruelty that it should be put down by the 

 Territorial Police. The barbarians who commit these atroci- 

 ties appear not to have the sense to perceive that there are 

 plenty of fish in the sea for Penguins as well as for human 

 food, and that the destruction of the unfortunate birds can 

 make no appreciable difference to the fish supply. It is only 

 where numbers of the larger species of Cormorants frequent 

 inland water that much damage is done to fish. 



