ADELIE PENGUINS 



Late in the season an occurrence took place for 

 which I have never been able to find any ex- 

 planation. Occasionally I had noticed that the 

 penguins had crowded together more than usual 

 on the ice-foot, multitudes of them standing for 

 hours without any apparent purpose. A good 

 idea of this scene may be got from the frontispiece. 



One morning Mr. Priestley came into the hut 

 and told me that " the penguins were drilling on 

 the sea-ice," and that I had better come and look 

 at them. I went with him to the ice-foot, and 

 this is what we saw. 



Many thousands of Adelies were on the sea-ice 

 between the ice-foot and the open water leads, 

 then some quarter of a mile distant. Near the 

 ice-foot they were congregating in little bands of 

 a few dozen, whilst farther out near the water, 

 massed bands some thousands strong stood silent 

 and motionless. Both the small and the large 

 bands kept an almost rectangular formation, whilst 

 in each band all the birds faced the same way, 

 though different bands faced in different directions. 



As we watched it became evident that some- 

 thing very unusual was going on. First, from one 

 of the small bands, a single bird suddenly appeared, 

 ran a few yards in the direction of another small 

 108 



