12 SECRETS OF ANIMAL LIFE 



pair settle down they remain perfectly faithful to 

 one another. 



The nests are made of rounded stones which the 

 'cock collects, stealing them when he can. Jagged 

 pieces of quartz seemed to be irresistible, the aesthetic 

 triumphing over comfort, and there was an eager 

 demand for Dr. Levick's painted pebbles, red being 

 preferred to green. A very interesting feature was 

 the entire avoidance of a big knoll rising from a 

 shallow lakelet by the beach. The water was frozen 

 hard when the penguins arrived, but the wise birds 

 seemed to realize (or was it some taboo-tradition?) 

 that in some six weeks' time they would not be able 

 to reach the knoll save by wading through muddy 

 water slimy with guano. On other situations the 

 nests were occasionally built too low, and a good 

 deal of energy had to be subsequently expended in 

 raising them with extra stones as the thaw-water 

 accumulated. A pretty incident was once seen 

 a cock bringing a lump of snow for the hen to eat. 

 "The cock, when away from his mate, evidently 

 had in his mind the fact of his hen being thirsty and 

 unable to get snow as he could." It is characteristic 

 of the Adelie penguins to climb heights and nest on 

 cliffs. Some of them, coming straight from the sea, 

 make at once for the heights, and climb laboriously 

 from ledge to ledge. Do they meet their last year's 

 partners at the summit? Dr. Levick found a 

 colony at the very top, about 700 feet above the 

 sea, a site which involves prodigious toil. " During 

 the whole of the time when they are rearing their 



