INTRODUCTION 



penguins from Cape Adare actually used to march 

 out and meet their Duke of York friends half way 

 over, presumably for the pleasure of a chat. 



To realize what this meant, we must remember that 

 an Adelie penguin's eyes being only about twelve 

 inches above the ground when on the march, his 

 horizon is only one mile distant. Thus from Cape 

 Adare he could just see the top of the mountain on 

 Duke of York Island peeping above the horizon on 

 the clearest day. In anything like thick weather he 

 could not see it at all, and probably he had never 

 been there. So in the first place, what was it that 

 impelled him to go on this long journey to meet his 

 friends, and when so impelled, what instinct pointed 

 out the way ? This of course merely brings us to 

 the old question of migratory instinct, but in the 

 case of the penguin, its horizon is so very short that 

 it is quite evident he possesses a special sense of 

 direction, in addition to the special sense which 

 urged him to go and meet the Duke of York Island 

 contingent, and I may here remark that when we 

 were returning to New Zealand in the summer of 

 1913, we passed troops of penguins swimming in the 

 open sea far out of sight of land, — an unanswerable 

 reply to those naturalists who still maintain that 

 migrating birds must rely upon their eyes for 

 12 



