II.] ANTARCTIC FAUNA 367 



when the chickens are not to be satisfied by the efforts of one bird, 

 and their hunger becomes so urgent that both parents have to go 

 and hunt. 



The chickens are now large and independent, and so a new 

 general method develops for the good of all. The young black 

 woolly chickens collect in groups of from twenty to thirty each, 

 and these groups are herded and protected from the skuas by three 

 or four adults who station themselves on the outskirts of the 

 group. 



The adults from time to time return with a load of shrimps, and 

 immediately set to work to find their infants. Amongst the first 

 group of infants they pass, however, are three or four too hungry 

 to be patient — so hungry, in fact, that they mistake this bird for 

 their parent, and give him chase. Up and down, and dodging 

 here and there, they run every bit as fast as he, and, heeding not 

 his growls as he stops now and then to swear and punish them, 

 they eventually tire him out and literally force him to feed them 

 because of their importunity. Edging close up to him, the most 

 pressing of the infants squeaks out his dreadful hunger, till at last 

 the old bird can stand it no longer, and allows the little infant's 

 head to disappear inside his own and find its food there. 



In this race for life that is thus constantly going on, the weakest 

 rapidly go to the wall. A chick that cannot run down the old bird 

 and its rivals in the race goes supperless. Needless to point out, 

 the next race is still less likely to be successful, and the chicken is 

 soon marked down by a roving skua, who quickly brings an end 

 to its unsuccessful life. 



Nothing is more amusing in some ways than to watch the busy 

 life of thousands of these quaint little individuals, and few things 

 more pathetic than the sad side of it all. 



Towards the end of January the chickens have shed their down, 

 and now appear in a glossy coat of blue-grey feathers with white 

 breasts and throat. This stage, which lasts a year, is never seen 

 in the breeding rookeries, but is found quite commonly in the 

 pack-ice in January ; and before the fact was recognised that it 

 was only an immature stage of the Adelie penguin, it was burdened 

 with a specific title which has since, of course, been dropped. 



By the end of February the old birds have left the rookeries, 

 and only the young remain. These soon learn to take the water, 

 and before long follow their parents in migration to the north, 

 where they spend the winter with them in the looser pack. 



