BIRDS OF THE AUSTRALASIAN SOUTH POLAR QUADRANT. 
from the darker grey which surrounds it. The bluish patch is noticeable 
during the first seventeen months, but the head then becomes jet-black all 
over. The point is the more interesting because it is exactly reproduced in the 
first prenuptial plumage of the immature King Penguin. As a grey coronal 
patch it is lost in both King and Emperor when the immature plumage is 
discarded, but in the King the tendency to differentiate in colour in this part 
of the head is again brought out by the disposition of minute quantities of 
golden-yellow pigment in the coronal and particularly the superciliary feathers, 
which, with the black, gives the crown a greenish sheen. This is also to be 
seen upon the chin and throat. 
The most puzzling fact about the Emperor Penguin is that the colouring 
of its nestling is totally different from that of the nestling of the King. In 
direct contrast, it has a jet-black head with a pure white area surrounding 
each of the eyes. The black of the head, starting from the base of the upper 
bill and including the forehead, lores and chin, is continued over the crown 
to the nape of the neck. There it blends with the silver-grey of the back, to be 
continued as a grey or blackish band, almost, but in most cases not quite, 
meeting on the fore-neck as a collar. Between this collar and the chin, which 
is jet-black, the throat is pure white, as is also a rounded area including the 
cheek, eyebrow and ear-coverts. The minute little tuft of stiff feathers 
which constitutes the tail is jet-black, and the whole of the remainder of the 
down covering the body is silvery-white or grey, with this notable peculiarity, 
that the darker area is on the under-surface, extending from the fore-neck 
to the vent, over breast and abdomen, whereas the white area is on the dorsal 
aspect including the nape, mantle, scapulars, back and rump, as well as the 
minute and downy-coated flippers ; thus reversing the usual order, in which 
the under-parts are lighter, or at least not darker than the upper. 
I do not consider that the white coloration of the Emperor chick has 
anything to do with the theory of protective assimilation. The young bird 
while in the down is careful never to leave the ice, and there can be no reason 
to think that it requires any protection other than its parents can give it until it 
sheds the white down and takes on the dark grey plumage of the first year’s bird. 
The complete absence of any protrusion of the brow or superciliary 
prominence gives the bird a quizzical look which is always entertaining. The 
movements of the eye are quick, and the upper lid is raised to look upwards 
without much motion of the head. The outer coverings of the eye are almost 
flush with the outer contour of the face and head ; there is no attempt to offer 
it protection by bom^ ridges, but every effort is made to produce an eye so 
placed as to catch the glint of a fish above, below, ahead or astern, while the 
bird is in its element under water in search of food. 
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