DOMESTIC LIFE 



who instructed the young in the water had finished 

 their moult, and were themselves ready to depart. 

 Many others, however, still wandered disconsolately 

 ahout the land, some of them only half fledged, and 

 moping under boulders or any sort of shelter from 

 the chilly breezes, and long after all the youngsters 

 had departed, solitary moulting birds were to 

 be found, emaciated and miserable, patches of 

 loose feathers still clinging to the new coat which 

 was making such a tardy growth. In some places 

 we found these old birds in holes under the rocks, 

 the old moulted feathers making some sort of a bed 

 which helped to protect their late wearers from the 

 cold. 



Both at Cape Adare in 1910 and at Inexpressible 

 Island in 1911, I found that though young and old 

 left the rookery simultaneously at first, yet after all 

 the young had departed many adults still remained 

 behind owing to the lateness of their moult, and 

 this is directly at variance with the remarks of Mr. 

 Borchgravink on the subject, because he says that 

 the old birds all leave the rookery first, abandoning 

 the young, who are driven by necessity to take 

 to the water and learn to swim. 



Well indeed was it for my companions and 

 me that this was so, for in the autumn of 1912 



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