PROFESSOR J. COSSAR EWART AND DOROTHY MACKENZIE ON 
learned, either as to the moulting period or as to the time occupied in substituting 
true feathers for prepennse. In the case of the two young King Penguins in down 
presented to the Scottish Zoological Society* in January 1914, the moulting was, 
obviously, abnormal. One bird began to moult on May 22nd, 1914, but only com- 
pleted the process about the middle of August ; the second bird started to moult 
about the middle of May, but the process was arrested for some weeks, with the 
result that the last of the long down tassels (prepennse) were only finally got rid of 
in September. 
In referring to the moulting of King Penguins in South Georgia, Murphy states 
that the down, shortest on the head and hair-like and matted on the body, gradually 
fades and finally assumes a golden-brown or yellowish colour. He further points 
out that the down' on the flippers is the first to go, that next it is lost from the 
lower breast, then from the back, and lastly from the upper breast, throat, and head. 
Fragments remained longest on the nape of the neck. About the immature plumage, 
it is stated that the new feathers of the upper breast reveal a pale, yellow tinge ; 
that the auricular patches, though brighter than the throat, fail to suggest the 
brilliant orange hue of the mature plumage ; and that the subtle greenish-yellow 
gloss or bloom seen on the crown of the head of many King Penguins makes its 
appearance soon after the down has entirely disappeared. According to Murphy, 
the young King Penguin of South Georgia, soon after the down is shed, may be 
regarded as a less glorified replica of the adult, t 
Dr Wilson, in his monograph on penguins in the Report of the N ational Antarctic 
Expedition, \ points out that the plumage of the immature King Penguin differs 
in several respects from that of the adult. The nature of some of these differences 
is made abundantly clear by means of coloured drawings. One of these drawings 
represents the head of a young bird upon the completion of the moult from the down ; 
one the head of an ordinary adult in full plumage ; and one the head of an extra- 
ordinary adult, in which the characteristic greenish-yellow sheen on the top of the 
head has been developed to an unusual extent. The difference between the head of 
the young immature bird just moulted from the down, and the heads of the adults is 
very striking : in the immature bird the colour of the throat and the auricular 
patches is pale yellow, in the adults it is brilliant orange. In the richly coloured old 
bird the greenish-yellow sheen on the top of the head is specially marked, whereas 
in the immature bird the top of the head is of a bluish-grey colour. 
A similar blue-grey patch is present on the head of the young Emperor Penguin 
(Aptenodytes forsteri). Because of the presence of a blue-grey patch on the head of 
young King and Emperor Penguins, it has been suggested that both these species 
* Two adult and two young King Penguins from South Georgia were presented to the Scottish Zoological 
Society in 1914 by Messrs Salvesen & Co., Leith. One of the old birds died soon after its arrival, 
f Murphy, loc. cit., p. 110. 
+ National Antarctic Expedition, vol^ ii, Zoology , 1907. 
