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take another dive, and so they progress. As they passed the ship for the first time, I thought they were 

 a school of young porpoises ; but the captain laughed and pointed to some Penguins resting on the waves, — 

 not till then did I discover my mistake. Soon the ship was surrounded by the birds, who, in their anxiety to 

 fathom the mystery of the strange creature who had invaded their territories, lifted themselves almost out of 

 the water. Penguins are seen hundreds of miles from land but, through their tremendous swimming powers 

 they are as much or more at home there, than they are on land. 



When one sees the calmness with which these Penguins go about their ordinary occupations, even when 

 we are among them, one feels that if they have the germs of fear in their composition they certainly do not 

 cultivate or allow it to appear except on rare occasions, as when we tip them over in their sleep. 



Never while I was on the island with these birds around me did the time drag heavily away, and 

 I cannot but feel that this was mainly due to the interest (one almost says companionship) of the Penguins. 

 Although totally dissimilar to human beings, there was something in their grouping while apparently exchang- 

 ing ideas which affected me strangely, and reminded me of knots of men. 



Perhaps it is this impression of similarity which has led me to write about them more as if they were a 

 nation of people than a mass of multitudinous birds fulfilling nature's laws. 



The climbing power of Royal Penguins (G. schlegeli) is extraordinary, and with the aid of their sharp 

 curved nails they are able to scale steep clay cliffs one and two hundred feet high. 



Although the Eoyal Penguins are in such numbers, yet I think the King Penguins {Aptenodytes pata- 

 gonica) are the most interesting, and I never tired of standing about in the midst of them, watching their 

 curious habits, and trying to understand the meaning of their seemingly inexplicable motions. 



Perhaps the most important point in connection with King Penguins is the fact of their not being 

 migratory, like the other species on the island ; it is therefore possible to study them in much greater detail 

 and to obtain reliable information as to their habits, in all stages of growth. 



' Kings ' are the tallest of all Penguins [except the Emperor Penguin] , being about three feet six inches 

 in height. They appear to v^ry in height, but this is only due to the elasticity of their necks, which are 

 sometimes stretched to their fullest extent, and at other times are drawn down. 



The following very interesting account of the moulting of the King Penguin in the Zoo- 

 logical Society's Gardens is given by Mr. E. W. De Winton in the ' Proceedings' for 1898 

 (pp. 900-902) :— 



In the latter part of July, before any feathers were shed, it was obvious that the bird was looking very 

 ' seedy ' — in fact, sickening for moult. The feathers of all parts lost their lustre, the colour of the beak faded, 

 and the head became grey, as if half of the feathers were wanting ; but this I do not think was the case. The 

 bird did not go into the water, and sat moping with half-closed eyes. It ceased to call in its loud manner and 

 to put itself into the usual ludicrous attitudes. This state of things went on for some weeks, but it was not 

 noticed that any feathers were shed until the latter part of August. The keeper tells me that the feathers of 

 the tail were the first to come out, and I saw the bird removing the feathers of the upper and lower tail-coverts 

 in the first week of September. About this time there was a very observable change in the appearance of the 

 bird — the colour had almost entirely gone from the patch at the base of the lower mandible, and, instead of 

 the clear orange colour, this patch appeared to be of a pale horn-colour. The feathers of the back and wings 

 became as brown as withered leaves, so that the bird looked as if it were covered with mud ; there was a tri- 

 angular space on the throat or lower neck where the larger breast-feathers were commencing to fall; this space 

 was never naked, but covered thickly with very short feathers, so that there was only a deep dent in the 

 plumage which increased daily in size. From this time the bird was always very busy picking its feathers 

 off; nearly all of them were removed by its bill, not pulled but pushed off; and there was no general peeling- 

 off in large masses, as is described by Mr. Bartlett in the case of the other species. 



When the moult was nearly completed, and only a few dried-up feathers adhered to the back and upper- 

 side of the middle of the wings, the epidermal covering of the orange-coloured patches on the lower mandibles 

 loosened and came off like pieces of parchment or dry bladder. By the third week of September the bird 

 was in perfectly fresh plumage ; it was constantly to be seen in the water lying for hours on the surface 

 spread-eagled, which is a very favourite attitude. One week afterwards its feathers seemed full-grown, the 

 colours perfectly fresh and bright, and it constantly crowed in its well-known way, especially towards the 

 evening. 





