THE EMPEROR PENGUIN. 7 



after they were laid, the majority were fully incubated, and these were rotten as a result 

 of having undergone a further incubation after life in the egg had been extinguished by 

 the cold. How the desertion of the new-laid eggs can be accounted for I am at a loss to 

 know, uuless indeed there was an earlier fall from the ice cliff when the incubation was 

 beginning, followed by another towards its close. And this is possible, for the condition 

 of the ice mass is constantly unstable, the ice sheet being always on the move. Had 

 the eggs been deserted once and for all when the ice cliff fell they would not, of course, 

 have been decomposed, for it was now September 13th only, and the sun which 

 appeared on the Northern horizon on August 23rd, after an absence of one hundred and 

 twenty days, had as yet no power to thaw, much less to assist in decomposing any- 

 thing. The sea ice, moreover, on which the eggs were found had been formed only since 

 the previous summer. It is therefore certain that the birds must have returned, when 

 it was too late, to resume their duties of incubation till the eggs were completely rotten. 



It is possible that the wholesale loss of eggs is not a rare occurrence. The ice 

 cliffs used for shelter are so much undermined and so unstable from the pressure of 

 the Barrier ice against Cape Crozier that no man in his senses would camp for a single 

 night beneath them. Yet these birds huddle there for upwards of five months in 

 every year persistently, and this may perhaps explain why so large a number of 

 the Emperors are unemployed. 



There were in this rookery adults both male and female to the number of about 

 one thousand, and not more than one in ten or twelve was occupied at the time 

 of our visit in rearing young. One may suppose that some had lost their eggs, and 

 some their young, for all had the keenest possible desire to brood, and many that had 

 tired of waiting to snatch up a living chick would nurse a dead one. 



We now saw that the chickens with which the birds were at present occupied were 

 distinctly smaller than those taken in October of the previous year. But the difference 

 seemed far less than might have been expected for five weeks' growth. The growth, in 

 fact, in the earlier stages of their life must be extremely slow. 



At any rate we saw that the date for the laying of the eggs must be jjut back 

 to the beginning of July. From seven to eight weeks seems a reasonable estimate for 

 incubation, and the eggs are all hatched out by the first week in September. There 

 were no eggs just hatching on the 12th, nor were there any recently discarded eggshells 

 on the ice ; nor were the smallest of the living chickens so small as some of the dead 

 and frozen lying there, which must have died some days before our visit {see Plate IV.). 



On our return from this early journey to the rookery, we brought back two living 

 chickens to the ship, hoping to throw some light upon their rate of growth and the 

 date at which the natal moult begins. We had amongst our party a seaman named 

 Cross, a first-class petty officer in the Royal Navy, who took charge of the foundlings, 

 and at 60° below zero denied himself the use of his sleeping jacket on the journey 

 home to keep them warm. At every camp he fed them with well-masticated seal 

 meat, and they were strong and well and lively when we reached the ship. I must 



