BIRDS OF THE AUSTRALASIAN SOUTH POLAR QUADRANT. 
whitish, throat which characterises the birds of five months old to be found 
in the pack during January. This same plumage is to be seen a year later 
in a brown and faded state, with blackish feathers sprinkling the white throat, 
and the whole about to be shed, in February, when the bird dons the first 
adult plumage, and all the characters of the fully adult, though not as yet 
the richness of colouring that it will assume at the next annual moult. 
The moult, from immature to adult plumage, takes just 20 days from start 
to finish. The feathers clinging close to one another came off in spurious sheets 
or handfuls, first from the breast and thighs, and then from the face and tail 
and flippers, but most irregularly, until at length there was nothing but a 
ruffle or collar of old feathers round the neck. 
The young feathers embedded in a mass of fat beneath the skin grow rapidly 
and push the old ones out, so that often a mere touch will detach a hundred 
fea.thers from the bird en masse. 
In all probability, not only are the superficial scales of the feet shed as 
well as the feathers, but also the plate on either side of the lower mandible. 
The superficial layers of these horny parts, at any rate, become loose, and, in the 
Emperor, change the colour of the beak, rendering it dull and opaque, and 
the feet brown instead of black. The coloured plates of the lower mandible 
can easily be removed in a moulting bird, and are then found to be of a trans¬ 
lucent yellow horn. 
In the young chick the colouring of the iris is a rich dark brown, varying 
a trifle in warmth from dark walnut, though never reaching the redness of 
mahogany. The bill is blackish at the tip and base and whitish in the centre, 
while in the older chicks there is sometimes a faint dusky purplish tinge in the 
lower bill. The feet and nails, at first pale fleshy-grey or the colour of French 
chalk, become darker day by day, till in the third week they are definitely black. 
In the immature bird, after shedding the downy feathers, the whole of the 
back becomes bluish-grey, the blue tinge preponderating and encroaching on 
the head and neck. The chin is grey and mottled, but the throat, instead 
of being black as in the adult, is white, with here and there a greyish feather 
showing through, though in some the demarcation line between the dark chin 
and the white throat is quite distinct. The iris in this stage also is a rich 
dark brown, and the bill has become dusky throughout, with a dull purple 
tinge upon the mandible. The feet are black, as also are the claws ; this holds 
good for the adult bird as well. The beak, however, alters, the side plates of 
the lower bill now show a decided orange-yellow tint, less marked than in the 
fully adult bird, but still distinct. The whole plumage in this stage has a brown 
and faded appearance, and the patch on the side of the neck has become quite 
white. 
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