50 EDWARD A. WILSON. 



trying to scratch shelters in the soil, an attempt which reminds one strongly of the 

 burrowing tendency of other species of penguins. One may find nests even so late 

 as January 9th, in almost all conditions, some empty and unoccupied, some empty, 

 but appropriated by a busy pair of stone collectors, who the next day desert it, and, of 

 course, leave no eggs. Thirdly, one may find a patient penguin sitting on an addled 

 egg ; another may be sitting on a chicken and an addled egg, another on two chickens, 

 one dead as soon as hatched, the other one well grown. And lastly, one with the 

 full complement of two, but markedly unequal in size. 



The chickens have now become more and more exacting in their food requirements, 

 and so by a natural sequence each more independent of its own individual parents. 

 In groups in which they mutually support one another from the skuas, they are more 

 protected than would otherwise be the case. 



The skuas, however, are always on the watch, and sooner or later a chicken is 

 separated from its group and falls a victim. The following is a case which I take from 

 my diary written at Cape Royds upon the spot. The skua, when I first caught sight 

 of it, was dragging the chick away by the skin of its neck, from the outskirts of a 

 group of penguins to a stream of water. The chick was lively and quite unhurt, about 

 half grown, and piping lustily. From time to time the skua stood off and watched its 

 victim, but at once dragged it back if any attempt was made to reach its companions ; 

 these were now about ten yards off. Not a single old bird tried to make a rescue 

 till I had watched for some five minutes. Then a penguin walked up to the skua 

 and drove him off, the chick immediately nestling up to him. This was more 

 than he had bargained for, so at once he left the chick to itself and went about his 

 business. 



Again the skua returned and began to drag the chick about by the skin of its 

 neck, pecking it till tufts of down flew from its back and loins. It was soon dazed 

 and bleeding from the head, but although several old penguins passed close by, not 

 one took the slightest further notice or attempted to interfere. For a long time the skua 

 did nothing but peck and pull at its prey, and then stand off to see what result this 

 had, and full fifteen or twenty minutes had elapsed before the chicken was exhausted ; 

 the skua then proceeded to tear open the back and make a meal from the parts about 

 the kidneys, which are almost invariably chosen first. 



The complete indifference of the older penguins was surprising, for they showed 

 the greatest courage in defending their eggs and chicks from us. I imagine that 

 they have become so accustomed to the ravages of the skuas, that they look upon 

 a chicken separated and once attacked as a chicken lost, and the skua an evil rather to 

 be endured than cured. The skua in this case was obviously afraid of the penguins, it 

 was slim and alert and ready to fly off at a moment's notice, and yet, as a rule, one 

 sees the penguins cower down as a skua flies over them. The margin of safety on each 

 side must be very limited, but it is certainly not conducive to a great belief in the 

 penguin's intelligence when one finds that it allows its only enemy on land to breed 



