EMPEROR PENGUINS 



birds, and causing hundreds of eggs to be deserted. 

 As Dr. Wilson stated, the ice cliffs beneath which 

 these remarkable animals sat were so unstable that 

 no man in his senses would camp for a single night 

 beneath them. In spite of this, evidence showed 

 that after an avalanche of ice blocks from above, 

 which had caused some of the Emperors to leave 

 their eggs on the ice and bolt in terror, many of 

 them had returned and continued to sit on the eggs 

 which had been frozen and killed by the frost in 

 their absence, continuing to do so long after they 

 were completely rotten. Indeed, in their desire 

 for something to hatch, some who had been deprived 

 of their eggs, were seen to be attempting to incubate 

 pieces of ice in their place, and, unlike Ad^hes, 

 they seem ever ready to snatch and foster the young 

 of their neighbours. 



The first time the rookery at Cape Crozier was 

 visited, not above one thousand birds occupied 

 it. On the second occasion their numbers were 

 far short of this. By the springtime only one 

 out of ten or twelve birds are seen to be rearing 

 young, so it is obvious other rookeries await dis- 

 covery in other parts, as there are a large number 

 of Emperors to be seen along the Antarctic coasts. 



When in the Terra Nova we made our way 

 136 



