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THE LITTLE BLUE PENGUIN.
"The Sunday Tunes" received a very
interesting letter from Captain Alfred
Douglas with regard to the Little Blue
Penguin. As I expressed the wish to
learn about the home or breeding
grounds (rookeries) of this remark-
able little bird, Captain Douglas was
so kind as to give me some facts which
will be unknown to most West Aus-
tralians. Captain Douglas, who has
travelled on the western and southern
shores for the last 40 years, found the
penguin in larger numbers on Bellanger
lsland, 80 miles east of Esperance Bay.
In the Recherche Archipelago (part of
the Great Australian Bight), are a
large number of islands, mostly small,
and it is not often possible to land on
some of them. But only a few have
been selected by the penguin as
homes, at any rate in large numbers.
On Bellanger Island, says the Cap-
tain, are thousands of them; although
the island is only about a mile long,
in the shape of a pear. He considers
this a large one, compared with many
of the others, which are only large
rocks. The east end is about 200 feet
high, very steep and rocky and the west
end low and sandy, covered with salt
bush. About midway is the home of
the birds: they live under large rock
shelters or ledges, where the sea can-
not reach them. Also the Mutton Bird
(either the wedge-tail petrel or the
fleshy-footed petrel) use that Island to
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