ORXITHOLOGY 



229 



breakers before they can scramble out 

 of the undertow. 



"When wading into the w^ater, the 

 johnny penguins invariably round their 

 shoulders, bend down their heads 

 almost to their feet, and scoop beneath 

 the surface as soon as there is depth 

 enough to float them. Once under way, 

 all their terrestrial awkwardness van- 

 ishes. They swim with well-nigh 

 incredible speed, remaining below the 

 surface except when they leap out por- 

 poiselike, giving an audible gasp for 

 air — to be gone again within the twink- 

 ling of an eye. 



"As long as young penguins were on 

 this nesting ground, processions of 

 adults might at all times be seen com- 

 ing and going between the high land 

 and the sea. The birds met and passed 

 each other without a visible sign of 

 recognition, each trundling graveh' 

 along on its own business. A broad 

 thoroughfare had been stamped across 

 the moraine, worn down doubtles.'- 

 through generations of the pattering 

 of little leathery feet, and deeph' 

 grooved, sinuous avenues extending up 

 the long snowbanks to the highest por- 

 tions of the colony two kilometers from 

 the shore. 



"The antiquity of the hill-climbing 

 instinct among the johnny penguins of 

 South Georgia is attested by a strange 

 and romantic phenomenon, namely 

 that the penguins go back to the 

 heights to die. In a hollow at the sum- 

 mit of the coast range south of the Bay 

 of Isles lies a clear lake on a bed of 

 ice-cracked stones. This transparent pool, 

 with a maximum depth of three or four 

 meters, is a penguin graveyard. In 

 January, 1913, I found its bottom thick- 

 ly strewn with the bodies of penguins 

 which had outlived the perils of the 

 sea and had apparently accomplished 

 the rare feat among wild animals of 

 dying a natural death. They lay by 

 scores all over the stony bed of the 

 pool, mostly on their backs with pin- 

 ions outstretched, their breasts reflect- 

 ing gleams of white from the deeper 

 water. Safe from sea leopards in the 

 ocean and from skuas ashore, thev took 

 their last rest." 



Two Skillful Fishermen, the Heron 

 and the Kingfisher. 



BY THK RKV. MAXLKY B. TOWNSEND, 

 NASHUA, N. H. 



(Photograph by H. G. Higbee). 

 Long' before the white man invaded the 

 wilds of America and began to exter- 

 minate the fish and game with rod and 

 gun, those fine old fishermen, the herons 



An English naturalist reports a wea- 

 sel feeding on frogs. 



Till i.RKAT BLUE HERGX. 



These beautiful birds add much to the life of our 



streams and marshes. 



and king-fishers, fished our lakes and 

 streams. Indigenous to our soil, like the 

 red man they took what necessit}' re- 

 quired, making no appreciable impression 

 upon the teeming waters. Then came the 

 white man and began his dread work. 

 Once the trout swarmed everywhere — 

 now one must seek the remote wilds to 

 find these speckled beauties in any con- 

 siderable numbers. 



Yet every once in a while some group 

 of fishermen breaks out in stupid antago- 

 nism to the feathered native anglers, 

 denouncing them as destroyers of fish, 

 and seeking legislation to allow their 

 destruction. Most states have seen such 

 attempts, — attempts that are frustrated 

 only by concerted action on the part of 

 bird conservationists. 



An instance of this sort occurred last 

 winter in New Hampshire. Some fisher- 

 men, with more zeal than wisdom, intro- 

 duced a bill into the legislature to remove 



