79 



In connection with the above remarks, on the extremely gentle nature of my captives, the 

 following note by Dr. Kidder is worth reproducing ; for his experience with one bird, at least, on 

 Kerguelen's Land appears to have been different. He says : "The first specimens of this Penguin 

 found near our station were met with on the beach on the 26th November, having apparently just 

 come out of the water. There was but a single pair, both of which were secured, one being- 

 brought home alive. The other fought so fiercely that I had to kill him to get him home. . . . 

 I endeavoured to keep the other alive, tying it up on the beach with a good long line to its 

 leg. It would spend a large part of every day, at the end of its line, splashing in the water. 

 It finally entangled itself in the seaweed near the bottom, and was drowned during the night. It 

 slept bolt upright, balanced on its heels, swaying back and forth as it breathed, and snoring 

 heavily. The neck is very extensible, so much so that the bird can stand at least a foot 

 taller when excited than when at rest. It will frequently remain for twelve hours standing in the 

 same place, and seems to me to be in every way a stupider bird than either Pygoscelis or 

 Eudyptes. When thrown down it raises itself by aid of its beak, pressing the point against 

 a stone. . . . Captain Fuller, of the schooner ' Koswell King,' informs me that they build no 

 nests whatever, carrying the egg about in a pouch between the legs, and only laying it down for 

 the purpose of changing it from male to female. The pouch, if there is one, can be no more than 

 a fold of the skin, since none was noticed in skinning or measuring the specimens." 



In my account of this species (vol ii., pp. 306, 307) I omited to mention, on the authority of 

 Professor Hutton, that a live one was taken in 1878 on the coast at Moeraki, and forwarded to the 

 Otago Museum. 



There is in my son's collection a pure albino King Penguin, without a speck of colour ; bill 

 white on the culmen, yellow on the sides ; feet yellow, with white claws. 



The young of the second year differs from the adult in having the corniform occipito-lateral 

 markings detached from the yellow of the foreneck, and these as well as the latter, instead 

 of being bright yellow, have only a wash of pale lemon-yellow on a white ground. The 

 green velvety sheen, so conspicuous in the adult, is absent from the head and throat, these parts 

 being dull black. The plumage of the upper parts is darker and lacks much of the slaty-blue hue 

 which characterises the adult. 



The examination of a series of eight eggs gave me the following result : They exhibit much 

 variety in size and shape ; the typical form is pear-shaped, but sometimes the}^ are elongate, 

 inclining to an elliptical form, with ah attenuated smaller end. The largest of the former in this 

 series measures 4'1 in. by 3 in. ; and the smallest of the latter measures 4'1 in. b}^ 2' 7 in. 



In the Pall Mall Magazine of November, 1897, there appeared an interesting article from 

 the pen of Mr. W. H. Bickerton, under the title of ' The Home of the Penguins of the World,' 

 giving a picturesque account of a visit to Macquarie Island, accompanied by photographs of his 

 own, one of which I have permission to reproduce. From his narrative I extract the following 

 paragraphs : — 



In the far Southern Pacific there lies an island whose shores are lined with millions upon millions 

 of strange and uncouth birds. This land, with its outstretching reefs, its sullen skies and pitiless seas, is their 

 home, and here the story of their lives is enacted. 



ODe sunny day in February, 1895, we jumped on board the hundred-ton ketch ' Gratitude,' lying at anchor 

 in Bluff Harbour, New Zealand, and set sail for a two months' voyage in the almost unexplored waters of the 

 South Pacific Ocean. Our destination was the Macquarie Islands ; and, after fighting with contrary winds 

 and equinoctial gales for twenty-eight days, the islands were sighted in the early morning. These islands, 

 looking mere specks on the mariners' charts, lie in about latitude 55° S. and longitude 155° E. Although 

 spoken of in the plural number, there is practically only one island — a range of hills starting almost straight 

 out of the sea, with coarse tussocks covering the sides, and lakes of snow water on the tops. It is thirty miles 



