ADELIE PENGUINS 



no further overtures the others took no notice of 

 him at all, as, overcome by sheer weariness, he 

 went to sleep and remained so until I was too cold 

 to await further developments. On my way back 

 to our hut I followed another cock for about thirty 

 yards, when he walked up to another couple at a 

 nest and gave battle to the cock. He, too, was 

 driven off after a short and decisive fight. Soon 

 there were many cocks on the war-path. Little 

 knots of them were to be seen about the rookery, 

 the lust of battle in them, watching and fighting 

 each other with desperate jealousy, and the later 

 the season advanced the more " bersac " they 

 became. 



A typical scene I find described in my notes for 

 October 25 when I was out with my camera, and 

 I mention it as a type of the hundreds that were 

 proceeding simultaneously over the whole rockery, 

 and also because I was able to photograph different 

 stages of the proceedings as follows : 



Fig. 22 shows a group of three cocks engaged 

 in bitter rivalry round a hen who is cowering in 

 her scoop in which she had been waiting as is their 

 custom. She appeared to be bewildered and 

 agitated by the desperate behaviour of the cocks. 



On Fig. 23 a further development is depicted, 

 38 



