KING PENGUIN. 
grass, amongst which one finds only hands of bachelors and unemployed. 
Generally, the sitting bird makes an effort to keep clean and dry by balancing 
itself on a stone, a little island as it were, in the muddy trickle that surrounds 
it. Several birds taken with eggs, and marked on the spot as sitters, proved, 
on examination, to be males, so that probably the parents take turns, one 
sitting while the other goes to sea to feed. 
There were birds in this rookery of all sexes, ages and conditions, a few 
adults even in full moult. Many of the young were still in a complete suit of 
chestnut-coloured down, although almost as big as the adults; many showed 
different stages of the natal moult, shaggy remnants of the down, commonly 
as collars only or tufts on the neck, breast and back, remaining still in situ ; 
many showed the clean pale feathers of immaturity, the neck being smaller 
and of a very pale lemon-yellow instead of orange-gold, the bright red side plates 
of the mandible being less conspicuous by its absence. 
Of the eggs, some were well advanced in incubation, though the great 
majority were fresh laid, and the contents of these were excellent eating, 
without any rank flavour, and with very pale yellow yolks. In no case was there 
any attempt at nest-building, but each bird balanced on its own little island, 
resented any interference, either from its neighbour or ourselves. If by 
chance one of them was overbalanced, it fell on its bill and wing tips, and so 
remained, holding tight to its egg until, by a sudden jerk, it recovered 
the upright position once again. 
The noise in the rookery was so excessive that we had to shout to one 
another to make ourselves heard above the din. The adults gave out a harsh 
guttural squark or a chattering gabble, and the young birds a shrill piping whistle. 
If we attempted to drive any of the unemployed into the water, we found 
ourselves engaged in a very difficult task. When scared, they seemed to have 
a great repugnance to leaving the shore, as we afterwards found was the 
case with the Antarctic Adelie Penguins. If we surrounded them and persisted 
in our efforts, they would dive in and appear beyond the kelp with head, bill, 
and neck held high in the air, while the body was so low in the water as to be 
hardly seen at all. 
The food of the King Penguin at this rookery consisted mainly of crusta¬ 
ceans, fish and cephalopods: many cuttle-fish beaks being found accompanied 
by pebbles in the stomach. 
The Kong Penguins toboggan, and it was not always easy to catch a bird 
before it dropped down on its breast and ruined its plumage by tobogganing 
in the filthy mire; nor were we ourselves pleasant objects, either to sight or 
smell, when the chase was over, spattered as we were from head to foot with 
a most offensive mud. 
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