loS BROOKLYN IXSTITITK MTSKl'M. SCIEN'CE BflJ.ETIX 2. 5- 
Inculmting king ])enRuins can sliift about slowly, in spite of the eggs 
on their insteps. They drag themselves along rather painfully, maintain- 
ing their hunched positions, and hitching their feet with .short steps so 
that the egg may not roll out. The\' are fc_>nd of crowding together 
closely, yet seemingly for no better purpo.se than to facilitate quarreling ! 
Day after da}- at the Lucas Glacier colony I was a neutral witness to 
their noisy squabbles. The sitters glare at each other, with sinuous 
necks twisted and heads cocked sidewise, and deal resounding whacks 
with their fiippers, or lunges with their sharp bills, to all their neighbors. 
Often whole groujis will be engaged in an indiscriminate skirmish with 
these rapiers and broadswords. The birds are careful to maintain their 
equilibrium while banging each other, but it is a wonder, nevertheless, 
that no harm comes to the eggs. On February 5 I photographed a 
txjiical battle. One sitter was enqiloying its Ijill to nuitilate the 
back of another's neck. The latter bird, grunting vehemently, was 
delivering backhand blows with one wing but without turning to face its 
opponent. Only the intrusion of weapons of other pugnacious jieuguins 
succeeded in diverting the attentions of these two from one another. 
The affair ended in a general melee in which nine birds took part, each 
for itself and against every other. Such is the reach and flexibility of the 
king's exten.sible neck that each sitter can very ea.sily become the center 
of a large circle of trouble. And yet they tike to sit as near together as 
jiossible, and if they move, it is only to draw to still closer quarters I 
According to an officer of a .sealing vessel at South Georgia, the 
mated king penguins relieve each other in the duties of incubation with 
more frequency than the nesting Pygoswlis penguins. I was informed 
that a bird which has been marked with a cord round the leg was ob- 
served to alternate with its mate during the forenoon of each day. The 
period of incubation is said to be seven wrecks.* 
King penguins of the Lucas Glacier colon\- which had been robbed 
of their eggs not later than December 22. had begun to la_\' a second 
time by January ,S. On January 16 three females brought to the ship b}* 
sailors had within their oviducts eggs almost ready for lading, while a 
fourth bird had been killed in the very act of depositing its egg. On 
January 27 I skinned several .vhich contained well-formed yolks not vet 
detatched from the oxaries. W'eddell names the beginning of Januar>- 
as the time of mating and lax ing. W'e, however, found eggs in an ad- 
vanced state of incubation in mid- December, wliile, on the other hand. 
