Monarchs Of Isle Wear Kingly Robes.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19239, 28 November 1930, Page 6

Monarchs Of Isle Wear Kingly Robes.

Nature Notes.

By James Drummond, F.L.S., F.Z.S. Macquarrie Island is not in New Zealand geographically, it is in the New Zealand zoological area, and its illustrious monarch, the king penguin, may claim remote connection with this Dominion, in which there are some eight species of lesser members of the order of which it is one of the heads.

These kings, unlike many other penguins, are not migratory, but one occasionally leaves its island kingdom, crosses the Southern Ocean, and steps ashore on New Zealand s coast with the air of a conqueror. Some wander as far north as Auckland Harbour; others put in on the coast of Otago, and at Stewart Island, the Snares, the Campbells, and the Antipodes. Drawn up in ranks on their own shore like a regiment of soldiers, and arrayed in glorious royal robes of blue, silky white, black and gold, they resemble from the sea in the distance the outcrop of a mountain of gold, or an entrance to El Dorado. These kings are not haughty. They enjoy social life amongst themselves. They live in communities, but they are jealous of their individual rights, for which they fight fiercely. Members of a community are classed with strict order. The young are in one place, the sitting birds in another, the moulting birds in another, and those in new robes in another. Unmated kings, /form themselves into bands, .swimming, feeding, and sleeping together and marching with stately stride, as shown in the illustration.