Aves. 135 



Mr. Burn-Murdoch, in his book, ' From Edinburgh to the 

 Antarctic,' has also some notes on the Adelia Penguins. He tells of 

 how a school of Grampuses came down from the northward when 

 they were in the ice off Mount Haddington : — ■" Whales and Penguins 

 fled before them, the Penguins leaping like shoals of Mackerel, and 

 the Pinners blowing along in great fright. The Penguins got on to 

 the first ice for safety, and toddled into the centre as fast as their 

 little legs would carry them. To-day we found another black Seal 

 full of fish and Penguins. It is a wonder these birds continue to 

 exist with such powerful and numerous enemies " (pp. 2G7, 268). 

 On the 1st of January to the north-east of the Danger Islets he met 

 with a " regiment " of Penguins standing at attention at the top of 

 a dome-shaped ice-island in the open sea (p. 272). All this colony 

 were sacrified for the larder. Mr. Burn-Murdoch says that the jumps 

 the Penguins gave out of the water were astonishingly high ; three 

 feet seemed to be an easy jump, but he often saw them fail at 

 higher attempts (pp. 272, 273). On the 31st of January, 1893, he 

 writes : — " Still blowing hard ; but we are in splendid shelter behind 

 a long ridge that was piled up last night. It is some thirty feet 

 high — the liighest j3ack that we have seen. The currents and wind 

 have collected it between them ; they have piled block upon block, 

 and the new snow has rounded off the points and angles with a 

 smooth white sheet, so that it does not look as if it had only been 

 formed last ni^ht. It is amusino' to watch the row of Penguins 

 standing on the slope. The wind is driving the falling snow past 

 them, and then blotting them out of sight, but they do not seem to 

 mind in the least, but preeu their thin, wiry feathers, apparently in 

 perfect content" (pp. 314, 315). 



\ Dr. Donald, who was on board the Dundee whaling-ship ' Active' 

 in the Erebus and Terror Gulf, has written an account of the 

 Penguins observed during the voyage (Proc. Eoy. Soc, Edinb. xx., 

 pp. 170-176). He writes : — " This bird was met with on making 

 the ice, in the latitude of the S. Shetland s, and about thirty miles off 

 the land (lat. 61° 14' S., long. 52° 27' W.) ; about a dozen or so were 

 seen at a time sitting or lying in twos and threes on the floating 

 cakes of 'pan-ice.' Passing further to the southward, and nearing 

 the Danger Islands immediately to the east of Joinville Land, the 

 birds increased greatly in number, and were seen in the water in 

 small schools, or sitting on the ice by tens and twenties. We had 

 ample opportunities of watcliing the peculiar gait and attitudes of 

 the bird, which he shows in common with all his tribe, and which, 

 indeed, liave often been described before. Standing absolutely erect, 



