EMPEROR PENGUIN. 
toward the end of the summer months and before the moult, when the new 
feathers underneath the skin will be found embedded in a mass of fat at least 
an inch in depth all over. This layer is much reduced by the growth of the 
new feathers and by the period of starvation necessarily undergone during 
the moult, when nothing will induce the birds to enter the water. 
The fish which forms the Emperor Penguin’s staple diet is a small silvery 
species of from 4 to 6 inches in length ; the crustaceans were mainly Euphausice 
and schizopods, while the cephalopods were of considerable size, a foot or two 
in length, judging by their beaks. The pebbles were no doubt of use in the 
trituration of the fish bones and harder parts of the crustaceans’shells. They 
were always present, in the young and in the old, and were found even in the 
stomach of a chick which could only have emerged from the egg a day or so 
before. Exactly where the pebbles came from is not at first sight evident, 
seeing that the birds are never on land. Probably they are picked up at the 
bottom of the shallow seas, or some of them may be found on floating glacier- 
ice. Much grit and gravel, even of a considerable size, is blown some distance 
on to sea-ice from the neighbouring coast-line. It may be that this affords 
the birds the supply they need. Occasionally the stones are passed with the 
excreta, and may be found in the radiating pattern which is left upon the ice¬ 
floes where a company of Emperor Penguins has huddled together for warmth 
and rest in their spring and autumn wandering. 
These wanderings are worthy of a note in passing. They keep well 
together always, travelling in single file, now and again halting to huddle 
together in a heap, all facing a common centre, presumably for warmth and 
sleep. Occasionally, the tracks showed that a bird had preferred to travel 
on its breast, but as a rule they all were walking. Always full of curiosity, they 
would stand round in a group making comments to one another. They had 
no objection to being photographed, but resented being stroked. Such a 
group formed an exceedingly beautiful picture : their lemon-yellow breasts 
shone like satin in the sun, and their bluish backs and jet-black heads set off the 
golden-yellow patch on the side of the neck, and the rose or lilac streak on the 
lower bill. The back and breast, if the bird had just been in the water, would 
glitter with crystals of ice and salt. Such is their size and colouring that they 
would form a striking feature anywhere. 
The average weight of thirty-three of these birds, all of which were adults 
and in full plumage, taken in November, was 70 \ lbs. Only one was below 601bs. 
Fourteen came between 60 and 70 lbs., fourteen between 70 and 80 lbs., three 
weighed respectively 80-80-87 lbs., and one scaled the record weight of 90 lbs. 
Their method of progression varies much with the necessity for speed. 
When left to themselves the birds invariably walk bolt upright with great 
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