II.] ANTARCTIC FAUNA 371 



down at about four hundred, and the number of living chicks at 

 thirty, with about eighty dead ones. Everywhere they searched for 

 eggs, but without success, and nothing but some scraps of eggshell, 

 evidently swallowed by the birds, was found. 



When this party returned to the ship with several chicks and 

 the news that there was a rookery at Cape Crozier, I was myself on 

 the point of starting in another direction, so Royds kindly offered to 

 make another journey, and get further particulars and examples of 

 the chicks. He was in this more lucky than one could have hoped, 

 for he brought back, amongst other things, the first authentic egg, 

 which Blissett, a lance-corporal in the R.M.L.I., had found lying 

 frozen in the snow. He also found that, arriving on November 8, 

 the young penguins had all left the rookery — a most unexpected 

 discovery, as it was impossible that they could have shed their 

 down, and so it was impossible that they could have taken to the 

 water to support themselves on the fish and shrimps and cuttlefish 

 that form their food. The only conclusion, therefore, was that they 

 had drifted up on the ice-floes to the north. 



This for the time being brought an end to our observations ; 

 but the following spring two journeys more were made to Cape 

 Crozier, for the purpose of filling in the gaps in our knowledge of 

 the bird's life-history. 



The first was undertaken on September 7, about a fortnight 

 after the sun's return. The days were short and the nights were 

 long, and the cold and discomfort were intense. We reached the 

 rookery in a week and reconnoitred for the morrow, when we made 

 our way over the gigantic pressure ridges, and at last got into the 

 bay where the Emperors were collected. Here, to our surprise, 

 we saw first a number of deserted eggs lying on the ice — some 

 cracked, some crushed, some perfect, some half-incubated, some 

 half-addled, but all frozen as hard as rock. 



Just where the birds had been quietly sitting on their eggs we 

 could see that there had been a sudden fall of ice from the face of 

 the Barrier Cliff. Without breaking through, this fall had crumpled 

 and split the sea-ice in all directions, and had so scared the sitting 

 birds that those which had escaped sudden death by burial in the 

 mass had fled precipitately, and left their eggs behind them. In 

 some cases we could see that the birds had returned when it was 

 too late, and had then resumed the incubation of their eggs, though 

 the frost had killed them. 



Proceeding next to where the birds were congregated, we found 



