THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



chaos is one of the most remarkable in nature, yet it serves 

 its purpose and saves the race. A kind of communism is 

 estabhshed, but the old birds have no part in it. They 

 cherish the fiction that they have nests and children, and 

 when they come up from the sea after feeding it is their 

 intention to find the nest and feed their own young only. 

 The young ones for their part establish a community of 

 parents, and yet it isn't exactly that either, though it works 

 out as if it were. It is each bird for itself. The chick 

 assumes the first old one that comes within its reach to 

 be its parent. Perhaps it really thinks so, as they are all 

 alike. 



An old bird, coming up full of shrimps, is met by 

 clamorous youngsters before it has time to begin the 

 search for its hypothetical home. They order it to stand 

 and deliver. It objects and scolds, and runs off. It may 

 be by the irony of fate that it is its own young which 

 accost it, but it can't know that. The chickens are both 

 imperative and wheedling. Then begins one of those 

 parent hunts which were so familiar at the end of the 

 season. The end is never in doubt from the first. Every 

 now and again the old one stops and expostulates. This 

 shows weakness. There is no indecision on the part of 

 the young one. It never seems anxious as to the result, 

 but in the most matter-of-fact and persistent manner hunts 

 the old one down. The hunts are often long and exhaust- 

 ing. One chase was witnessed at Pony Lake beside the 

 camp. Nine times they circled the lake, and the hunt was 

 not over when the watcher had to leave. On that occasion 

 they must have travelled miles. At the end the old one 

 stops, and still spluttering and protesting, delivers up. 

 One would think that in these circumstances the weaker 

 chicks would go to the wall, but it does not appear to be 

 so. There are no ill-nourished young ones to be seen. 

 Perhaps the hunts take so long that aU get a chance, 



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