ADELIE PENGUINS 



getting up. As every hen appeared to hate her 

 neighbour they would peck -peck at one another 

 hour after hour, in the manner seen in my 

 photograph,* till their mouths and heads became 

 terribly sore. Occasionally they would desist, shake 

 their heads apparently from pain, then at it again. 

 In various places through the course of these 

 pages, reference is made to the " ecstatic " attitude 

 of the penguins. This antic is gone through by 

 both sexes and at various times, though much more 

 frequently during the actual breeding season. The 

 bird rears its body upward and stretching up its 

 neck in a perpendicular line, discharges a volley 

 of guttural sounds straight at the unresponding 

 heavens. At the same time the clonic movements 

 of its syrinx or " sound box " distinctly can be seen 

 going on in its throat. Why it does this I have 

 never been able to make out, but it appears to be 

 thrown into this ecstasy when it is pleased ; in fact, 

 the zoologist of the " Pourquoi Pas " expedition 

 termed it the " Chant de satisfaction." I suppose 

 it may be likened to the crowing of a cock or the 

 braying of an ass. When one bird of a pair starts 

 to perform in this way, the other usually starts at 

 once to pacify it. Very many times I saw this 



* Fig. 12. 



46 



