43^ 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[Oct. 26, 1888, 



3,000 in one day, a statement which, in spite of its 

 magnitude, may yet be accepted with a fair amount of 

 credulity, since these navigators were probably the first 

 human beings to set foot on the island, and the birds had 

 been free from molestation for unknown generations. 



The penguin rarely quits the vicinity of land, never 

 appearing at great distances out to sea, and are in the 

 habit of forming perfect little colonies in their island 

 homes. 



During the Transit of Venus Expedition to Kergue- 

 len Island the Rev. A. E. Eaton, naturalist to the ex- 

 pedition, found that some of the penguin colonies only 

 contained about twelve nests, while others had from 70 

 to 150, and some of the officers visited a very populous 

 " penguinery," which contained about 2,000. 



These large communities were approached from the 

 sea by well-worn paths, almost like sheep-tracks. Dr. 

 Bennett has a theory that the sitting hens, young birds, 

 moulting birds, and clean birds all form distinct classes 

 of the community, and that the line of demarcation 

 between the several classes is strictly defined, no clean 

 bird, for example, being allowed to assort with a moult- 

 ing bird. The nests are of simple construction, gener- 

 ally a mere hole scraped in the ground, lined with a few 

 dried leaf-stalks and seed-stems of the Pringlea. The 

 female seldom lays more than one egg, greyish white 

 in colour, and this egg she never leaves for many 

 moments until it is hatched. She holds it close to her 

 thighs, and if approached during incubation she briskly, 

 if inelegantly, waddles off, carrying her egg with her. 

 During this time the male bird goes to sea for food for 

 the female, who soon grows fat, but as soon as the 

 young bird is hatched both parents go to sea in search 

 of food, and the young bird grows fat in proportion as 

 the old ones get thin. Captain Fitzroy declares that 

 the old birds, when they arrive with the food supplies, 

 solemnly get on a little eminence and make a great 

 noise, between quacking and braying, as if haranguing 

 the penguinery, only interrupting the thread of their 

 discourse to allow the young ones to take their food. 

 Although at first the penguins seemed to have had not the 

 slightest fear of man, they are apparently beginning to 

 associate his appearance with discomfort, if not with 

 death, and the male birds now sometimes take to flight. 

 The females only run a very little distance, often turning 

 round to see how matters are proceeding, and generally 

 returning at once to the nest. The young apparently 

 do not object to strangers, and prefer remaining in the 

 nest, submitting with perfect willingness to be stroked 

 by the intruder, however much the anxious mother 

 may peck at his legs and otherwise betray her disap- 

 proval of his presence. A little later in life the young- 

 sters when returning to the nest at night will 

 sometimes linger behind, but are sharply rebuked 

 by the community for such irregular proclivities, all 

 the penguins safely at home giving the truant late- 

 comers severe digs and pecks as they pass them on their 

 homeward way. Mr. Eaton states that the penguins, or 

 " Johnnies," as the whalers call them, are very regular 

 in their habits, repairing every afternoon, when their 

 fishing operations are over, to the shore, where they 

 land in small parties at their accustomed places, and 

 rest quietly on the beach with their heads sunk between 

 their shoulders and their bills up in the air, much after 

 the fashion of very young thrushes. They will com- 

 mence the ascent to their homes with great energy, but 

 soon begin to slacken their pace, and when once 



thoroughly tired out no amount of persuasion, even if 

 administered with suasive force by the toe of a boot, 

 will induce a penguin to continue his journey until he 

 chooses. If knocked right over, the "Johnnie" will 

 only pick himself up to peck at the offending boot ; and 

 if further measures be resorted to, he simply turns tail, 

 and betakes himself headlong to the sea. A penguin's 

 gait is not as dignified as its erect appearance might 

 lead one to suppose. Its legs are very far back, 

 and its feet broad, almost like the sole of a quad- 

 ruped's foot, so it stands extremely well, but at 

 each step its body turns from side to side, its 

 feet almost crossing each other, with a decidedly inelegant 

 effect. Its little wings, utterly ineffectual though they be 

 for flight, are not only very powerful swimming agencies, 

 but act as very efficient fore-feet in an emergency on land, 

 and if greatly alarmed a penguin makes off, literally on 

 all fours, with such speed that a careless observer 

 might easily mistake the bird for a low-bodied quad- 

 ruped. In colouring the penguin is almost a harmony 

 in black and white. The upper part of the head and 

 throat is black ; the back dark bluish grey, so dark as 

 to be almost black ; the under surface pure silvery 

 white ; the bill black ; legs and feet black. The one 

 touch of colour is supplied by the broad band of light 

 yellow which runs down the side of the head, narrows 

 towards the middle of the throat, and then merges on 

 either side into the dazzling white of the bird's breast. 

 Its feathers are all set in the peculiar fashion common 

 to the natatores, or swimming birds, and together with 

 the thick under-coating of down, render it impervious to 

 cold and wet. The penguin invariably sits erect in its 

 roosting-place, and unless agitated or hurried, walks 

 upright to the sea, where it throws itself on its breast 

 to encounter the rough seas that break over those shores. 

 The cry of the penguin somewhat resembles the bark of 

 a fox, and the combined noise from an army of pen- 

 guins is something considerable ; indeed, their noc- 

 turnal cries have sometimes served as timely warnings 

 to navigators steering in the wrong track. The total 

 length of a penguin averages about three feet, its tail 

 being so rudimentary that it counts but little in the 

 measurement, and the weight averages from thirty to 

 forty pounds. There are several species of penguins, 

 the handsomest being probably the Crested Penguin 

 (Eitdypes chrysocomd) of Patagonia, a bird with a fine 

 crest of yellow feathers, which it can erect or depress 

 at will, and with a strange habit of throwing its head 

 backwards when on land, and making an extraordinary 

 loud noise, not unlike the braying of an ass, which has 

 gained for it. the name of " Jackass Penguin" among 

 sailors. 



The Mollyhawk in our illustration is the Antarctic 

 skua {Stercoraruis cmtardicus), a strong, rapacious brown 

 bird, of the family Laridce (gulls), closely akin to the 

 common skua (S. catarrhactes) of the Shetland Islands. 

 The Rev. A. E. Eaton states that during the above- 

 mentioned expedition the skuas were at first very 

 plentiful on Kerguelen Island, but were destroyed in 

 great numbers by the sailors, not in mere wantonness, 

 but in self-defence, for the bird had a menacing habit of 

 " swooping with fierce impetuosity directly towards the 

 face of any one approaching their domain, rising only 

 just in time to clear his head, and uttering sharp, de- 

 spairing cries." As the sailors learnt their method of 

 attack, they simply held a knife, point upwards, above 

 their heads when searching for eggs, and on this knife 



