12 Vallentin, Notes on the Falkland Islands. 



ground all round the rookery was trodden down and 

 saturated with filth, the strong ammoniacal smell, which 

 is always the first thing noticed on approaching a Penguin 

 rookery, being very apparent. In one of these nests, I 

 discovered a couple of stones, evidently placed there by 

 the owners, which, as I afterwards found, weighed 2|oz. 

 each. On pointing these out to my companion, Mr. Felton, 

 he told me he had frequently observed a Gentoo select a 

 stone from the beach, and on picking it up start for its nest. 

 This act seems amongst these birds an open declaration of 

 war. On his way thither all his neighbours attack him, 

 and try to obtain possession of this coveted stone. After 

 a free fight, one Gentoo would succeed in placing it in his 

 nest, and then the stone was instantly forgotten by the 

 others. All the stones I removed from the nests were far 

 too large to pass down the oesophagus of a bird of this 

 species ; besides, they were coated with filth and were 

 dark in colour. I could not satisfy myself why these 

 birds collected them. If these stones had been bright in 

 colour, and glistened in the sunshine, one would at once 

 attribute this collecting trait to an aesthetic taste possessed 

 by these Penguins, but all I examined were dark in colour 

 and dull-looking. 



On passing a short distance along the sloping ground, 

 the hillside became steeper, and numerous rocks and 

 boulders appeared. Here we found an enormous rookery 

 of birds, and they formed an almost unbroken colony 

 along the cliff for at least half a mile. There were three 

 species of birds present — ' Mollymauks' or lesser Albatross 

 {Dinmedea chlororhynca), ' Rockhoppers' [Eiidyptes chryso- 

 come), and ^ Shdigs' {Pkalacrocorax imperialist —^x\6. they 

 appeared to live together in perfect harmony. Under 

 these circumstances, it is difficult to estimate their 

 numbers. The 'Rockhoppers' were by far the most 



