ADELIE PENGUINS 



damage, and cause a great deal of annoyance to the 

 peaceful inhabitants. The few to be found at first 

 probably are cocks who have not succeeded in 

 finding mates, and consequently are "at a loose 

 end." Later on, as their numbers are so greatly 

 increased, they must be widowers, whose mates 

 have lost their lives in one way or another. 



Many of the colonies, especially those nearer the 

 water, are plagued by little knots of " hooligans," 

 who hang about their outskirts, and should a chick 

 go astray it stands a good chance of losing its life at 

 their hands. The crimes which they commit are 

 such as to find no place in this book, but it is 

 interesting indeed to note that, when nature intends 

 them to find employment, these birds, like men 

 degenerate in idleness. 



Some way back I made some allusion to the way 

 in which many of the penguins were choosing sites 

 up the precipitous sides of the Cape at the back of 

 the rookery. Later I came to the conclusion that 

 this was purely the result of their love of climbing. 

 There was one colony at the very summit of the 

 Cape,* whose inhabitants could only reach their 

 nests by a long and trying climb to the top and 

 then a walk of some hundred yards across a steep 



* Fig. 70. 

 98 



