ADELIE PENGUIN—LEVICK. 73 
takes place only after they have left the nesting-ground. Parties are never seen 
making their way among the nests, and when, after bathing, they reach the rookery, 
they invariably break up and go their several ways. Again, when on their way out 
from the rookery, groups are formed on the ice-foot, they consist of strangers from 
different parts of the rookery, not of neighbours from any particular spot. } 
The manner in which penguins swim in the water has already been described by 
many writers, and it is enough merely to allude in these pages to their two methods Of 
progression, which are by swimming on the surface as a duck does, and secondly by 
“porpoising” (Pl. XIII)—a method distinctive of their order. When swimming on 
the surface they sit low in the water, the upper part of the back being submerged, 
so that the neck sticks up out of the water. In this position they make ‘fair progress, 
attainmg a speed of some six knots. This, however, is their slowest method of 
progression in the water, and when they travel quickly they always use the 
“ pnorpoising ” method. 
It is beneath the surface that they are most agile. Here they use their powerful 
flippers for propulsion, the action of these appearing to be exactly that of a bird’s 
wings in flying. Their speed and agility under water may be compared to those of 
fishes, and they can turn to either side, or completely double in their tracks in the flash 
of a moment. Their power of leaping from the water merits a special description, and 
IT am able to show photographs taken whilst they are doing this. 
After the sea-ice had broken away from the ice-foot on the shores of the 
rookery, a ledge of ice varying from three to twelve feet high rose precipitously 
from the water in many places, and here their leaping powers were to be seen at 
their best. The highest leap I saw was exactly five feet from the surface of the 
water. 
When about to land on a high ledge a party of Adéhes swim to within twenty or 
thirty yards of it, when all may be seen to stretch up their necks and survey their 
landing-place. Then in a moment all disappear beneath the surface, not a ripple 
showing the direction they are taking, till suddenly they all shoot clean out of the 
water, either together in a cloud, or in a stream, one after the other, and land with the 
greatest precision on to the top of the ice (Pl. XIV). The fact that this is very 
frequently undercut by the waves, and projecting some feet towards them, makes their 
accurate judgment all the more remarkable, as from the moment they disappear beneath 
the surface after their preliminary survey of their landing-place, twenty or thirty yards 
off, or sometimes more, to the moment they leap from the water, they must carry in 
their minds the exact distance from the spot where they are to rise at the ice, yet I 
never saw one of them misjudge the distance so far as to rise under the overhanging 
ledge, or jump short of the landing-place. My photographs show them leaving the 
water, in the air, and landing on the ice. When they land on a slippery surface 
(Pl. XV) they generally fall forward in the tobogganing position and slide forward a 
short distance before rising to their feet; but when they land on snow they throw 
L 2 
