BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 



91 



and beyond the pack ice they came upon the great 

 " rookeries " of the black-throated and emperor 

 penguins. Later on, by sledging, they had hoped to 

 reach the emperor penguin rookery at the beginning 

 of the nesting season, but did not arrive there until 

 September, when they found that the young had 

 been hatched in August, during the period of 

 greatest cold and of complete darkness. The eggs 

 as well as the young are held on the feet of the old 

 birds, and are in this way protected from contact 

 with the ice. The young take three years to 

 develop fully ; the emperor — the finer species — 

 being about four feet high in full maturity and 

 weighing as much as 90 lbs. The birds are, of 

 course, flightless, so that they are easily destroyed 

 in the rookeries at the breeding-time ; when first 

 followed, they endeavour to escape by walking, 

 but when in danger they lower their bodies and 

 with the help of the wings and feet glissade at a 

 rapid pace on the ice, till they reach the water, 

 where they are at once and completely at home. 

 The black-throated penguins, on the other hand, 

 make their pebbly nests on bare ground. The 

 young, when a little older are herded in great 

 colonies. These " creches" are left under the 

 charge of two or three sentinels or shepherds, while 

 the parents go to seek crustaceans in the water amid 

 the ice floes. Each parent on returning is mobbed 

 so persistently by the hungry chicks as to be 

 unable to reach or possibly to find its own young, 

 and is obliged to disgorge its supply to the most 

 vigorous and resolute of the mob. The whole life 

 in such rookeries affords one of the most perfect 

 examples of a literal fight for existence, and the 

 law of survival of the fittest is impressed indelibly 

 upon the mind of the onlooker. 



Mr. Bruce, who went out with the National Scot- 

 tish Expedition, also showed photographs of the 

 penguins (emperor, black-throated, bridled, gentou, 

 and rock-hopper), courting, fighting, and also in 

 melancholy procession being driven to the ship to 

 be killed for food. Neither these birds nor the 

 skuas showed, he said, any fear of man. The 

 Scotia started from the Falkland Islands, and 

 reached as far south as latitude 74°, wintering in 

 the South Orkneys. Mr. Bruce gave a vivid ac- 

 count, both by word and picture, of some of the 

 islands, with their precipitous cliffs green with 

 lichen, and their rocks clothed with tree-ferns and 

 other vegetation. Of the nineteen species of birds 

 noted on Gough Island, three were new to science 

 —two buntings, quite distinct from those of Tristan 

 da Cunha only 200 miles distant, and a thrush. 

 The buntings, shown from paintings by Mr. Good- 



child, were coloured, the one green, washed with 

 silver-grey, and the other orange-buff, and have 

 been named Nesopiza jessice and N. goughensis. 

 With the exception of a water-hen these were the 

 only land birds. A number of eggs of birds whose 

 nesting places had never before been reached 

 were also seen, including those of the Cape pigeon, 

 snowy petrel, giant petrel, and blue-eyed shag. 



At the closing general meeting of the Congress 

 a practical effort towards the safeguarding of the 

 Antarctic birds was initiated by Mr. Walter Roths- 

 child, who moved " That a cablegram be sent to 

 the Government of New Zealand, and to the 

 Legislature of Tasmania, urging them to introduce 

 legislation to prevent in islands under their rule, 

 the destruction of penguins now going on for the 

 sake of boiling the birds down into oil." The 

 motion was strongly supported by Sir Walter 

 Buller (the well-known author of " The Birds of 

 New Zealand "), Sir John Cockburn (formerly 

 Premier of South Australia, and a member of the 

 Council of the Royal Society for the Protection of 

 Birds), Dr. Giglioli, M. Fatio, Mr. F. M. Chapman, 

 the Rev. H. Bonar, Mr. Littler (delegate of the 

 Australian Ornithological Union), and Dr. Bowdler 

 Sharpe. Mr. Littler referred to the hideous cruel- 

 ties by men who go " mutton-birding " in islands 

 lying between the Australian mainland and Tas- 

 mania, and stated that such a cablegram would 

 strengthen his hands ; the Tasmanian Legislature 

 had recently put the penguin on the totally pro- 

 tected list. 



The only opposition was raised by Mr. Leonhard 

 Stejneger, representative of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tute, Washington, U.S.A.; not, it need hardly be 

 said, out of any sympathy with the penguin's 

 enemies, but on the ground that the Congress had 

 no business to dictate to Governments. The Con- 

 gress were, however, unable to see anything like 

 schooling in such a message from those interested 

 in bird preservation to those competent to enact 

 it. It was agreed that the petition should be 

 addressed to the Commonwealth of Australia, in 

 addition to New Zealand and Tasmania, and that 

 for the word "penguin" should be substituted the 

 words "all birds boiled down for oil." And the 

 motion was. finally ..passed., despite this one ..dis- 

 sentient, amidst great applause. .... .... 



"" """ Bird Protection Section. 



The Congress was sub-divided into five sections ; 

 that especially devoted to Bird Protection was 

 under the presidency of Mr. Dresser, with Dr. 

 Penrose as secretary, and held two meetings, 



