240 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



" The only deviation from these acknowledged tracks was made 

 when one or more of us ten human beings appeared near their road. 

 Then the Penguin who first discovered us, with a hoarse little croak, 

 would break the line and start off towards us. On reaching us he 

 would stop, and gradually all the Penguins would stop behind him, in 

 the same way as railway carriages stop when the engine ahead is pulled 

 up. The first Penguin, having inspected us from one point of view, 

 would start to walk round us, the others gravely following. The first 

 birds, having satisfied their curiosity, started off, joining the main track 

 by a short cut. Looking at them from behind, the contours of their 

 dark backs stood sharply cut out against the white snow. This, in 

 addition to their slow gait, their frequent halts, their grave and un- 

 earthly silence while walking in their ordered lines, irresistibly con- 

 veyed to tbe human mind an impression of a Lilliputian funeral 

 procession." 



The Essex Field Club has reached maturity, and its " coming of 

 age " was tbe subject of an address by its president, Prof. Meldola, of 

 which we have received a copy. As we read : — The actual work 

 accomplished down to the present time will be found in the nineteen 

 volumes of publications ; five volumes of ' Transactions ' and ' Pro- 

 ceedings,' and, commencing in 1887, eleven volumes of the ' Essex 

 Naturalist,' together with the three volumes of ' Special Memoirs.' It 

 is not only by the number of printed pages, however, that the work 

 will be judged in the future. A study of the contents of these nineteen 

 volumes will show that the Club has on the whole kept faithfully to 

 the programme as set forth in its original rules : — " The investigation 

 of the natural history, geology, and archaeology of the County of 

 Essex (special attention being given to the fauna, flora, geology, and 

 antiquities of Epping Forest) ; the publication of the results of such 

 investigations, &c." 



We learn from the Report of the Hampstead Scientific Society for 

 the year 1901, that it is hoped that tbe material for the publication of 

 " Tbe Fauna and Flora of Hampstead and its Neighbourhood " will 

 be sufficiently advanced for the first part to appear in the autumn of 

 1902. The General Editors are Mr. Basil W. Martin and Dr. J. W. 

 Williams, with the assistance of Messrs. Hugh Findon, Montagu F. 

 Hopson, C. S. Nicholson, the Rev. F. A. Walker, and Mr. James E. 

 Whiting. 



