MAWSON EXPEDITION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20626, 26 July 1930, Page 13

MAWSON EXPEDITION.

BIRDS AS SCAVENGERS.

PETRELS AT KERGUELEN

THE AMUSING PENGUINS.

BY Sill DOI'GLAS MAWSON. (All rights reserved.) No. VII. The ornithologist to the expedition, Mr. R. A. Falla, continuing bis report on .Antarctic bird life, wrote as follows: The food which enables young albatrosses and the young of other petrels to live in this way on accumulated fat and reserve of vitamin is usually some species of cuttle-fish or squid. Here, as elsewhere in these legions, scavenging birds were well represented by Skua gulls, Dominican guJls, giant petrels and sheathhills or "paddies." Later at Kerguelen and Heard Island we were to see still more of these carrion hunters and their methods, and their habits are much the same everywhere. Giant petrels gorged themselves to such an extent on the offal of dead seals that tliey are actually incapable of flight for days at a time and can only hobble along sideways. As a Lancashire member of the crew expressed it, "Them's real voolcliers." Paddies of the Crozets are smaller than those of Kerguclen and seem more gregarious in habits. Many of them were busily engaged in parasite-hunting on the backs of sea-elephants, a task at which the big beasts never disturbed them.

Penguins Robbed ol Eggs

At Hoard Islam] later wc saw something of their skill at egg-snatching, a job at which they hunt in pairs. One I'addy will approach a silting penguin and provoke an attack, and as the penguin lunges sideways the other Paddy lushes in and spears the egg. This arouses the noisy indignation of all J lie penguins in sight, but Paddies quietly devour the egg and successfully repeat the whole performance.

Kerguelen proved a rich field for the study of the nesting habits of petrels, a group of oceanic birds which includes the albatrosses and tiny storm-petrel, as well as intermediate kinds. During the past 69 years English, American and German expeditions have added much to our knowledge of the birds of Kerguelen, but there still remains ample scope for ornithological work, especially in the north and west of the island. Each species has its own peculiarities in choice of breeding place, season and feeding habits, and the fullest possible amount of field data should accompany every specimen collected. Species which are difficult to distinguish from one another in museum collections can be more definitely separated when this is done. The little diving petrels are a case in point, and our collection contains three forms from an area where only one has been previously described. Another difficult group are the prions and our material will be a contribution to fuller knowledge of their forms and distribution.

Ornithology of Heard Island

Heard Island was particularly interesting as a little known region from the scientific point of view. Although it lies only about 200 miles south of Kerguelen its bird life is characteristic of a colder zone and has features in common actually with the more distant isles of Bouvet, South Georgia and Macquarie. Its rugged heights are barren and ice-bound, and there is little enough shelter on the windswept lowlands. Suitable nesting places are few in number and consequently overcrowded. Macaroni penguins nest on steep, rocky faces from sea level to the most dizzy and incredible heights; rockhuppers, which are almost as numerous, show preference for holes and caves in the lava; while the gentoos on the flat perch their nests on the tussock ridges between the mud-wallows of sea elephants. Other birds seen were king penguins, several kinds of petrel, sooty albatrosses, the usual scavengers, a cormorant and a tern, both scarce, and no land birds except Paddies. In the Antarctic regions proper we met with the usual circum-polar birds. Emperor penguins and young Adelie penguins were everywhere on the pack-ice, the former regarding the ship with dignified interest, and the latter with ludicrous curiosity. Snow petrels, Antarctic petrels and silver-grey fulmars were our constant companions, and wo never tired of watching their silent flight about the peaks of great bergs or along the blue lanes of open water in the pack. From time to time also we saw immense flocks of Arctic terns, birds which so love the daylight that on the coming of the Arctic night they migrate to the regions of the long Antarctic summer day. These terns were all in non-breeding plumage. The few rocky islands and capes which exist along this coast (from Enderby Land to the eastward) are practically all breeding stations. An Antarctic Bird Nursery.

A brief description of conditions on Proclamation Rock, which we visited one cry-stal-clear day in January, will give some idea of an Antarctic bird nursery. Conspicuous above everything else are the sights, sounds and smells of the Adelie penguin rookery, which extends from the ice-foot to a height of some 300 ft. up the slope. They have been described often enough before and probably no description will ever do them full justice.

There is surely no other bird in which various emotional states are so obviously expressed, and the rapid change, from one emotion to another provides an element of continuous comedy. In the actual facts of their lives there is tragedy enough. The young are always in danger from the attacks of skuas or from violent riots among ibe penguins themselves, and the adults in the water are preyed upon by sea leopards and killer whales.

An Abundance of Food. Except for McCormick's skua, tho remaining birds ot tho rook are petrols. Snowpetrols brood their helpless chicks in deep sheltered crevices; Antarctic petrels seek only break-wind shelter, lint they keep their young well covered; tile Cape pigeons nesting near by are on ledges, and perhaps the most exposed of all, Wilson petrels, like black and white butterflies Hit constantly over the ground, and if watched closely can ho seen to disappear into the subterranean crevices whore tho nests are hidden. . Tho secret of this abundant bird life in such a desolate region is, of course, to be found in the sea, for whatever hardship* the Antarctic may impose upon hci cieatures, danger of starvation is not one o them The study of Antarctic birds, and of other vertebrate animals in relation to their food supply, is one of the main ptoblenis of fni t liet research.