NEVER AGAIN 561 



One day there had been a blizzard, and lying open to 

 the view of all was a deserted nest, a pile of coveted stones. 

 All the surrounding rookery made their way to and fro, 

 each husband acquiring merit, for, after each journey, he 

 gave his wife a stone. This was the plebeian way of doing 

 things ; but my friend who stood, ever so unconcerned, 

 upon a rock knew a trick worth two of that : he and his 

 wife who sat so cosily upon the other side. 



The victim was a third penguin. He was without a 

 mate, but this was an opportunity to get one. With all the 

 speed his little legs could compass he ran to and fro, taking 

 stones from the deserted nest, laying them beneath a rock, 

 and hurrying back for more. On that same rock was my 

 friend. When the victim came up with his stone he had his 

 back turned. But as soon as the stone was laid and the 

 other gone for more, he jumped down, seized it with his 

 beak, ran round, gave it to his wife and was back on the 

 rock (with his back turned) before you could say Killer 

 Whale. Every now and then he looked over his shoulder, 

 to see where the next stone might be. 



I watched this for twenty minutes. All that time, and I 

 do not know for how long before, that wretched bird was 

 bringing stone after stone. And there were no stones there. 

 Once he looked puzzled, looked up and swore at the back 

 of my friend on his rock, but immediately he came back, 

 and he never seemed to think he had better stop. It was 

 getting cold and I went away : he was coming for another. 



The life of an Adelie penguin is one of the most un- 

 christian and successful in the world. The penguin which 

 went in for being a true believer would never stand the 

 ghost of a chance. Watch them go to bathe. Some fifty 

 or sixty agitated birds are gathered upon the ice-foot, 

 peering over the edge, telling one another how nice it will 

 be, and what a good dinner they are going to have. But 

 this is all swank: they are really worried by a horrid sus- 

 picion that a sea-leopard is waiting to eat the first to dive. 

 The really noble bird, according to our theories, would 

 say, " I will go first and if I am killed I shall at any rate 

 have died unselfishly, sacrificing my life for my com- 



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