THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



daily, sometimes bringing some friends. As he passed 

 among the dogs, which were barking and trying to get 

 at him, he stood and defied them ail, and when we turned 

 out to try to drive him away, he offered to take us all on 

 too, and was finally saved against his will, and carried 

 away by Brocklehurst, a wildly struggling, unconquer- 

 able being. 



The old birds enjoy play, while the young ones have 

 no leisure for play, being engrossed in satisfying the 

 enormous appetites they have when growing. Four or 

 five Adelies were playing on the ice-floe. One acted as 

 leader, advanced to the edge of the floe, waited for the 

 others to line up, raised his flipper, when they all dived 

 in. In a few seconds they all popped out again, and 

 repeated the performance, always apparently directed by 

 the one. And so they went on for hours. While the 

 Nhnrod was frozen in the pack, some dozens of them 

 were disporting themselves in a sea-pool alongside. They 

 swam together in the duck fashion, then at a squawk from 

 one they all dived and came up at the other side of the 

 pool. 



Early in October they began to arrive at the rookery, 

 singly or in pairs. The first to come were males, and they 

 at once began to scrape up the frozen ground to make 

 hollows for their nests, and to collect stones for the walls 

 with which they surround them. The digging is hard 

 work and is done by the feet, the bird lying prone and 

 kicking out backward. As soon as any apology for a 

 nest is ready the males begin displaying, as shown in the 

 acompanying photograph. He points his bill vertically 

 upwards, flaps his wings slowly, inflates his chest, and 

 makes a series of low booming sounds, which increase in 

 loudness, then die away again, the throat vibrating 

 strongly. Then he slowly subsides into the usual attitude. 



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