BIOLOGY 



or snow they can run pretty fast, getting along about as 

 fast as a man at a smart walk. They find even a small 

 crack a serious obstruction, and pause and measure with 

 the eye one of a few inches before very cautiously hopping 

 it. They flop down and toboggan over any opening more 

 than a few inches wide. They can cKmb hills of a very 

 steep angle, but on uneven ground they use their flippers 

 as balancers. They toboggan with great speed on snow 

 or ice, or even on the bare rocks when scared, but in that 

 case their flippers are soon bleeding. Very rarely they 

 swim in the water like ducks. They lie much lower in 

 the water than the duck. The neck is below the surface 

 and the head is just showing. 



The Adelie is very brave in the breeding-season. His 

 is true courage, not the courage of ignorance, for after 

 he has learned to know man, and fear him, he remains to 

 defend the nest against any odds. When walking among 

 the nests one is assailed on all sides by powerful bills. 

 Most of the birds sit still on the nests, but the more pug- 

 nacious ones run at you from a distance and often take 

 you unawares. We wore for protection long felt boots 

 reaching well above the knee. Some of the clever ones 

 knew that they were wasting their efl*orts on the felt 

 boots, and would come up behind, hop up and seize the 

 skin above the boot, and hang on tight, beating with their 

 wings. One of these little furies, hanging to your flesh 

 and flapping his strong flippers so fast that you can 

 hardly see them move, is no joke. A man once stumbled 

 and fell into a colony of Adelies, and before he could 

 recover himself and scramble out, they were upon him, 

 and he bore the marks of their fury for some time. 



Some birds became greatly interested in the camp, 

 and wanted to nest there. One bird (we believe it was 

 always the same one) couldn't be kept away, and came 



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