II.] ANTARCTIC FAUNA 363 



On the outskirts of the pack we saw besides a few small whisps 

 of Tern, a Sooty albatross or two, a Black-browed albatross or 

 two, and a few of the blue-grey Whale-birds ; but all these left 

 us as we entered the denser pack, and were not seen again till our 

 return more than two years later. 



From the first day till the last on which we encountered ice, we 

 saw no other birds but those that I have mentioned ; and except 

 for a few hours on shore at Cape Adare, where we found the little 

 Wilson's Stormy petrel nesting, we had no opportunity of investi- 

 gating the nesting habits of any of them, except of the three that 

 were with us in McMurdo Sound. 



Nevertheless, what could be written of the three birds that we 

 had there would alone suffice to fill a volume, and we consider 

 ourselves exceedingly fortunate in that the Emperor penguin was 

 one of them ; for no one had previously seen its breeding grounds, 

 nor had anyone been enabled to throw any material light upon its 

 habits since the time that the bird was first discovered. 



The second of our trio was the other most typical Antarctic 

 penguin, the Adelie Land penguin {Pygoscelis adelics), which bred 

 at Cape Crozier, within our reach, and had there one of the largest 

 rookeries of the species that is known. We had also on Cape 

 Royds, at the mouth of McMurdo Sound, another small rookery, or 

 breeding colony, and we were thus well placed for making further 

 observations on this bird. And of the third, the McCormick's 

 skua {Megalestris maccormicki) we saw no end, and were able to 

 investigate a very large number of its nesting sites. 



Now, of all the birds that I have mentioned, the Emperor 

 penguin's history is by far the most interesting and important. I 

 will therefore deal first with the others, and write somewhat more 

 fully of the Emperor below. 



The nesting places of a large number of the petrels, even in 

 temperate climes, are still unknown, and in our hasty visit to South 

 Trinidad we were able to procure the eggs and young of two 

 petrels, neither of which had been obtained before. It is there- 

 fore not surprising to find that the eggs and young of the Antarctic 

 petrel {ThalasscEca antarcticd) are still unknown ; nor have any of 

 the recent expeditions succeeded in finding them. Yet the bird is 

 plentiful not only in the pack-ice but throughout Ross Sea, and 

 particularly in very large numbers first about the Possession 

 Islands, and then in a very local area about King Edward's Land, 

 at the extreme eastern end of Ross's Great Ice Barrier, where 



