ioo THE VOYAGE OF THE 'DISCOVERY' [Jan. 



In every respect these small birds afford a fund of interest. 

 Their winter is spent in the pack-ice to the north, but with 

 regular migratory habits they suddenly appear at their rookeries 

 in September or October, and crowding in every available 

 spot, they scrape a few pebbles together into the rudest form 

 of nest and lay their eggs. In due course the little brown- 

 coated chicks are hatched out and begin and continue their 

 life in an almost ceaseless clamour for food, which the parent 

 birds provide with indefatigable patience and zeal. Things 

 continue thus until the chicks have grown to full stature and 

 have shed their brown coats of down for their maturer white- 

 breasted plumage, when they are led to the water by the older 

 birds, and, in spite of much protest, rudely pushed in. Hence- 

 forth, it is to be supposed, they must fend for themselves, and 

 the rookery once more becomes a desert. 



On our arrival at Cape Adare the young birds were already 

 well grown, and despite the very pungent and decided odour 

 of penguin which assailed our nostrils, we continued to watch 

 the antics of these queer inhabitants with absorbing interest. 



Round and about the clusters of penguins, with their busy 

 comings and goings and their ceaseless chatter, were gathered 

 a number of the light-brown skua gulls. One could have 

 imagined them to be dwelling on the greatest terms of 

 friendship with the penguins until one saw some unfortunate 

 penguin chick wander from its immediate company, when with 

 a swift swoop a watchful skua would descend on it and in an 

 instant its life was ended, and its yet quivering little form was 

 being torn by its rapacious enemy, whose own nest and chicks 

 might lie but a few yards away. 



In the centre of the Cape Adare beach still stands the hut 

 used by the members of the Southern Cross Expedition, and 

 scattered about it we found a considerable quantity of pro- 

 visions. The hut is in very good condition, and in such a 

 climate might well remain so for many years to come. Should 

 some future explorers traverse this region, it is well to know 

 that here they possess a retreat in case of emergency, as, 

 although they may not find all the provisions in good condi- 



