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V.—The Moulting of the King Penguin (Aptenodytes patagonica)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 July 2012

J. Cossar Ewart  and
Dorothy Mackenzie
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Extract

As the King Penguin chick grows, the down tassels forming the prepennæ increase in length until they measure from 50 to 75 mm. (2 to 3 inches) over the greater part of the body. Some of the barbs of the juvenile down carry for some time natal down barbs on their tips, and the inner ends of all the barbs forming the tassels are eventually found to be continuous with barbs of either the main shaft or the aftershaft of the developing true feathers. How long the down coat is worn by any given King Penguin is not definitely known—it is said that King Penguins may not moult the prepennæ until they are nearly a year old; neither is it known at what time of the year the majority of the King Penguins living under natural conditions in South Georgia shed their prepennæ, or how long the moulting process usually lasts.

Type
Research Article
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 52 , Issue 1 , 1918 , pp. 115 - 132
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1918

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References

List of Papers and Books Referred To

Bartlett, A. D., “Remarks upon the Habits and Change of Plumage of Humboldt's Penguin,” Proc. Zool. Soc., 1879.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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Seth-Smith, David, F.Z.S., “On the Moulting of the King Penguin,” Proc. Zool. Soc., 1912.Google Scholar
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