38 EDWARD A. WILSON. 



ON January 2nd, 1902, we sighted ice for the first time after leaving New 

 Zealand, and for the first time also were surrounded by such typical ice birds 

 as Thalassceca antarctica and Pagodroma nivea. Priocella glacialoides had met 

 us the day before when we were accompanied also by a number of Sooty, Black- 

 browed and Wandering Albatrosses and a few Cape Pigeons. All these left us before 

 the following day. Yet we were in the ice for three whole days before Pygoscelis 

 adelise, first singly, and then in couples, some immature with white throats, and 

 some adult and black-throated, appeared to greet us with their ringing cry " Aark ! " 

 " Aark ! " 



On this third day we were for the first time amongst the more extensive icefloes, 

 and these being far more closely packed, afforded an excellent opportunity for the 

 inquisitive little birds to run long distances towards us, and with many halts to gaze 

 and cry in wonder to their companions ; now walking along the edge of a floe in search 

 of a narrow spot to jump and so avoid the water, now with head down and much 

 hesitation judging the width of the narrow gap, to give a little standing jump across 

 as would a child, and running on the faster to make up for its delay. Again, coming 

 to a wider lead of water necessitating a plunge, our inquisitive visitor would be lost for 

 a moment, to reappear like a jack-in-the-box on a nearer floe, where wagging his tail, 

 he immediately resumed his race towards the ship. Being now but a hundred yards 

 or so from us he pokes his head constantly forward on this side and on that, to try and 

 make out something of the new strange sight, crying aloud to his friends in his amaze- 

 ment, and exhibiting the most amusing indecision between his desire for further 

 investigation and doubt as to the wisdom and propriety of closer contact with so huge 

 a beast ; this constantly leads him first to advance and then recede, and eventually 

 to give discretion a permanent advantage over valour (figs. 27, 28, p. 38). 



Nothing could exceed the amusing interest which these birds excited in our minds, 

 looking on them as we did for the first time, though the amusement and the interest 

 increased tenfold later on, when we came to watch and study them in the more busy 

 hours of the nesting season at their " rookeries." The number of Adelie Penguins 

 increased day by day as we made our way through the ice pack towards the south. We 

 saw about an equal number of birds in the adult and immature plumages to begin 

 with, but when we reached, on January 8th, the southern edge of the pack, those in 

 the adult plumage vastly preponderated. 



The pack ice is a place of safety for the immature birds ; here they live and move 

 and find their living in comparative safety for the first two years of their existence, 

 possibly in many cases for the first three years. Here they feel nothing of the ocean 

 swell, which is practically lost under the weight of floating ice within half a mile of the 

 open sea, while they can find shelter from the wind and drift under a friendly hummock. 

 Here they have always a handy retreat upon an icefloe when hunted by the Sea 

 Leopard (StenorJdnchus leptonyx), or the Killer whale (Orca gladiator). Here, too, 

 they bask and sleep in safety when they have filled themselves to satiety with 



