THE LIFE-HISTORY OF BIRDS 287 



Let us lift the veil on a few scenes where Death is at work 

 among the nurseries of the bird-world. 



The most striking of all is that presented by the Emperor 

 Penguin of the Antarctic. For the remarkable facts a study 

 of this bird has revealed, we are indebted to Dr. E. A. Wilson, 

 one of the naturalists who accompanied the Discovery Antarctic 

 Expedition of 1901. 



These birds perform the work of incubation, strange as it 

 may appear, during the Antarctic mid-winter, forming, for this 

 purpose, vast colonies on the sea-ice, and as the brooding birds 

 are at this time in excellent condition. Dr. Wilson observes, 

 " it is obvious that the same bird does not sit on the same egg 

 for seven weeks". And he continues: " It would appear that 

 the incubation is carried out, not by one bird only, or by a 

 single pair, but by a dozen or more, which stand patiently 

 waiting round for a chance to seize either a chicken or an egg 

 as the post of incubator becomes vacant: every adult bird, 

 both male and female, in the whole rookery has a desire to sit 

 on something. Certainly not more than one egg, and so one 

 chicken, is produced to every ten or twelve adults, though why this 

 should be the case is more than one can say ; possibly it is a con- 

 dition of things evolved in an exacting climate to allow each adult 

 to obtain sufficient food through so long a period of incubation. 

 " Not only do the barren females take their turn with the 

 hens that lay the eggs, but the male birds also help, and so 

 every individual . . . has the same bare patch of skin in the 

 median line of the lower part of the abdomen against which 

 the egg is closely held for warmth. What we actually saw, 

 again and again, was the wild dash made by a dozen adults, 

 each weighing anything up to ninety pounds, to take possession 

 of any chicken that happened to find itself deserted on the ice. 

 It can be compared to nothing better than a football ' scrim- 

 mage' in which the first bird to seize the chicken is hustled 

 and worried on all sides by the others while it rapidly tries to 

 push the infant in between its legs with the help of its pointed 

 beak, shrugging up the loose skin of the abdomen the while to 

 cover it. Although the transfer of the egg was never actually 

 seen, there is every reason to believe that when the sitting bird 

 feels hungry it hands over its treasure to the nearest neighbour 

 that will undertake the duty of incubation. 



