346 
NATURE 

of a million (Fig. 1). They toddle along on 
the sea-ice at the rate of about two-thirds of 
a statute mile per hour, with about 130 steps 
to the minute, and this mode of progression 
they alternate with tobogganing on_ their 
breasts, using their legs as propellers (Fig. 2). 

Some of them. stop. on the low ground; 
others make straight for the cliffs:and nest on the 
ledges. Dr. Levick found a colony established at 
the very summit, about r1ooo feet above the sea, 
a site that involved a prodigious amount of labour 
[May 27, 1915 


near the beach. It was very suitable when the 
penguins came ashore, but later on it was sur- 
rounded by foul water slimy with guano, to wading 
in which the birds have a deeply-rooted objection. 
But how did they know? Another interesting fact 
was the occasional raising of nests which had 
’\; 1 .—A long linefof Adélie Penguins approaching their breeding ground. From “ Natural History of the Adélie Penguin.” 
been built too low, and were in danger of being 
flooded in thaw time. a 
In connection with the mating, with its deadly 
but never fatal encounters of rival cocks and the 
quaint approaches that the victor makes to the 

Fic. 2.—Adélies walking and “‘ tobogganing” over sea-ice to the Rockery. From ‘‘ Natural History of the Adélie Penguin.” 
later on when the young had to be fed. Several 
journeys up and down had to be made in the 
twenty-four hours, and the up-journey meant 
about two hours’ strenuous climbing. Very inter- 
esting in its prescience was the entire avoidance of 
an attractive knoll rising out of a shallow lake 
NO. 2378, VOL. 95] 
coy hen, the observer proved by marking the 
breasts with paint that couples remain perfectly 
faithful to one another all through the breeding 
season. Careful watching of marked nests 
showed that the shortest period of fasting (be- 
tween the arrival at the rookery and the hatch-— 








