ADELIE PENGUINS 



Arrived at the farther end, some half a mile 

 lower down, those on the " excursion boat " had 

 perforce to leave it, all plunging into the tide and 

 swimming against this until they came to the top 

 again, then boarded a fresh floe for another ride 

 down. All day these floes, often crowded to their 

 utmost capacity, would float past the rookery. 

 Often a knot of hesitating penguins on the ice- 

 foot, on being hailed by a babel of voices from a 

 floe, would suddenly make the plunge, and all 

 swim off to join their friends for the rest of the 

 journey, and I have seen a floe so crowded that as 

 a fresh party boarded it on one side, many were 

 pushed off the other side into the water by the 

 crush. 



Once, as we stood watching the penguins bath- 

 ing, one of them popped out of the water on to the 

 ice with a large pebble in its mouth, which it had 

 evidently fetched from the bottom. This surprised 

 me, as the depth of the sea here was some ten 

 fathoms at least. The bird simply dropped the 

 stone on the ice and then dived in again, so that 

 evidently he had gone to all the trouble of diving 

 for the stone simply for the pleasure of doing it. 

 Mr. J. H. Gurney, in his book on the gannet, says 

 they (gannets) are said to have got themselves 

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