12 SECRETS OF ANIMAL LIFE 
pair settle down they remain perfectly faithful to 
one another. 
The nests are made of rounded stones which the 
‘cock collects, stealing them when he can. Jagged 
pieces of quartz seemed to be irresistible, the esthetic 
triumphing over comfort, and there was an eager 
demand for Dr. Levick’s painted pebbles, red being 
preferred to green. A very interesting feature was 
the entire avoidance of a big knoll rising from a 
shallow lakelet by the beach. The water was frozen 
hard when the penguins arrived, but the wise birds 
seemed to realize (or was it some taboo-tradition ?) 
that in some six weeks’ time they would not be able 
to reach the knoll save by wading through muddy 
water slimy with guano. On other situations the 
nests were occasionally built too low, and a good 
deal of energy had to be subsequently expended in 
raising them with extra stones as the thaw-water 
accumulated. A pretty incident was once seen— 
a cock bringing a lump of snow for the hen to eat. 
“The cock, when away from his mate, evidently 
had in his mind the fact of his hen being thirsty and 
unable to get snow as he could.” It is characteristic 
of the Adélie penguins to climb heights and nest on 
cliffs. Some of them, coming straight from the sea, 
make at once for the heights, and climb laboriously 
from ledge to ledge. Do they meet their last year’s 
partners at the summit? Dr. Levick found a 
colony at the very top, about 700 feet above the 
sea, a site which involves prodigious toil. ‘ During 
the whole of the time when they are rearing their 
