48 ZOOLOGICAL LOG OF THE SCOTIA 



severe enough to affect a penguin. Snowies, black-backed gulls and nellies seen in 

 addition to the black-throated penguins. 



Oct. 8th. The birds seen were snowies, black-backed gulls and nellies, as well as 

 many black-throated penguins. We killed twenty-three penguins at the Point Martin 

 rookery for skins and food. A nelly swooped down and tore a piece from the breast of 

 one of the killed, only a few yards from the cook. Courtship seemed to be beginning 

 among the penguins ; twice I saw two approach one another, and a mutual rubbing of 

 beaks ensued to be followed by the one, probably the female, snapping at the other and 

 moving off. No new seal pups to be seen. The same males seen as yesterday. 



Oct. 9th. The birds seen to-day were snowies, black-backed gulls and nellies, as 

 well as a few adelia penguins coming from the south. 



Oct. I0th. The gen too penguins have arrived. At the large penguin rookery at 

 Point Martin l there were over 500 birds to-day of both species adelia and gentoo, 

 and at the nearer rookery by the " Half-moon " glacier there were also many penguins. 

 I saw large bodies of them on their way to the big rookery from the open water, and as 

 they arrived they clambered up on to the rocks at once. We met a flock of both 

 species, some twenty or thirty of each, apparently mingling indiscriminately on their 

 journey. As soon as we approached the adelias hurried on ahead of the gentoos, moving 

 quickly on their bellies ; when in front of us they stood up and stared, and with heads 

 thrown upwards loudly screeched defiance, but on our further approach they turned tail and 

 scuttered away on their bellies for several hundred yards without stopping. Meanwhile 

 the gentoos had been standing contemplating us quietly from further off, and when the 

 retreating adelias passed them, they too fled, but in a more leisurely way, and always 

 erect when possible, only flopping down when we came too near. The gentoos finally 

 stopped far short of the more active adelias, and had resumed their course almost before 

 the adelias had halted in their flight. 



At the rookery nesting had begun and the birds seemed to be paired. The (?) male 

 deliberately collected pebbles in his beak one by one, and dropped them in a small 

 heap or a rough circle, while the (?) female meanwhile sat by and looked on. When I 

 approached the male adelia screamed defiantly, while the female ran away ; when she 

 had got clear the male too retreated, but very unwillingly. We put two adelias in a 

 seal hole, and in less than a minute they re-appeared with a sudden leap over two feet 

 into the air, and, holding themselves in an erect position, they landed on the ice. 



Two seals with fairly well developed pups were lying near the trap-hole. We drove 

 them both in, but the youngsters would not follow. First one came out of the hole and 

 moved towards the nearest youngster, but it turned out not to be hers, so she passed 

 on to the other, and a mutual sniffing and rubbing of noses ensued, accompanied by 

 various cries presumably indicative of joy. The rejected baby followed the adult, but 

 when she saw it she turned and snarled at it as if warning it off, but made no attempt 



1 The largest rookeries in Scotia Bay were at Point Martin and along the coast and on the islets in the 

 vicinity to north and south. 



