ROYAL OR MACARONI PENGUIN. 
limited in size and extent. Definite nests Rad been made by each pair of birds 
quite close to one another, composed of grey pebbles, twenty to thirty in 
number, small and large, with water-worn bones picked up on the adjacent 
shore. They were well-formed structures with raised edges, circular, and 
with a good depression in the centre of each. The birds had already made 
good progress with their incubation, for in every nest we found an egg, and 
they were all too fully incubated to be useful as food. The male shares the 
labour of incubating with the female, and the process is said to be completed 
in a month. The eggs w r e took were about three parts incubated. 
The whole process of incubating and chicken rearing by the Royal 
Penguin is comparable to that of the Adelie Penguin further south, but 
every stage takes place about a month earlier. 
When we were on the spot in November no moulting birds were to be seen, 
and every bird was paired, nests made, and an egg laid to each pair of 
birds. Their condition was so uniform throughout that we could only 
conclude that the laying of eggs takes place, as in the Adelie Penguin, almost 
to the day throughout the rookery, and not over a considerable extent of 
time, as in the case of the King Penguin. Only two phases of plumage were 
seen in November. First, and by far the most numerous, were the fully 
adult birds with white throats and chins and long golden-yellow super¬ 
ciliary plumes. Secondly, there were a considerable number of yearling 
birds, with dark grey chins and throats and short golden plumes. Besides 
these were to be found a certain number with slight traces of grey persisting 
upon the throat; birds which, judging from the length of their plumes, were 
at least two years old, if the grey-throated birds were correctly considered 
yearlings. 
The fully-developed plumes present a very grotesque appearance as they 
stand out on both sides of the head and frame the fierce-looking blood-red 
—4 
eyes and the large red bill. The birds looked like harpies cowering over 
their nests on our approach, swearing and growling in concert with the 
harsh and angry cries of their neighbours in a way which was almost 
deafening. 
While engaged in incubating its eggs the bird squats in the same manner as 
the Adelie Penguin, right down upon its nest. There is no effort to hold 
the egg between the legs, and in no case was the egg lifted when we raised 
the bird from its nest. Yet the production of a single egg may be con¬ 
sidered the first step towards what one may call the hyperpodial method of 
incubation employed by the King and Emperor Penguins, which, although 
more primitive than schlegeli in some respects, must be considered more highly 
specialised in this particular direction. 
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