14 W. P. PYCRAFT. 
still attached to the new ones. This moult was exceedingly rapid, taking from first to 
last about ten days! 
The observations of Mr. De Winton (5) were made on a King Penguin also in the 
gardens of the Zoological Society, and included two successive moults. The change 
here differed from that described by Bartlett in Spheniscus, inasmuch as he tells us that 
the feathers “became as withered leaves,” lost all. their lustre, and were assiduously 
removed by the bird, this operation being performed, not by pulling, but by pushing 
them with the beak from their attachment. They were not “ peeled” off in masses as 
in Spheniscus. 
During the second moult he discovered that each of the moulting feathers was 
attached by its base to the tip of that succeeding it. The new feathers he describes as 
“ growing into the bases of the old ones, the thin sheaths attached to the bases of the 
feathers being occupied by the points of the new feathers.” The effect of this peculiar 
attachment is to give the bird an extraordinarily bloated appearance, the old feathers 
standing out almost at right angles to the body.* Though the description and figures 
given by Mr. De Winton tally in the main with my observations made on the Emperor 
Penguins brought home by Dr. Wilson from the ‘ Discovery’ Expedition, I find that 
in a few details they require amendment. 
The skins of the moulting birds brought home by Dr. Wilson exactly agree with 
the description given by Mr. De Winton, thus showing that the peculiar method of 
moulting which he described was not due to the effects of confinement. In the skins 
in question the feathers are all erect and come away with the slightest touch. In some, 
however, as well as in a number of moulting feathers given me some time since by 
Mr. De Winton, the peculiar attachment of the old feather to the tip of the new, 
described by Mr. De Winton, is perfectly preserved. And an examination of these 
shows that the sheath which normally invests all growing feathers, instead of ending 
in a quill-like point, has become attached to the rim of the lower umbilicus of the old 
feather, which thus remains attached to the tip of the new until this has pushed its way 
some distance out of the skin and completed the growth of the enclosed rami. The 
sheath, by this time having lost its hold on the imprisoned rami, now easily comes off 
with the old feather. 
V.—Tue Syrinx oF tHe Aputt Emperor PENGuIN. 
THE syrinx of the Emperor Penguin, Aptenodytes forsteri, does not appear to have 
been previously described. As in the rest of the penguins it is tracheo-bronchial, but 
shows a tendency towards the bronchial type. The first bronchial semi-ring has the 
form of a gently arcuate rod, while the second and third are nearly straight. As will 
be seen in Fig. 5, the tracheal rings grow smaller immediately above the syrinx, and 
are also bent upon themselves; the tracheal rings from the antepenultimate onwards, 
* Cf. Dr. Wilson’s Report on Birds, p. 20. 
