BIOLOGY 



A few days after the eggs began to hatch there was a 

 severe bhzzard, which lasted several days. Snow was 

 banked up round most of the birds. A snowdrift crossed 

 the densest part of the rookery partly burying many birds. 

 In the deepest part nests and birds were covered out of 

 sight, and the only indication of the whereabouts of a 

 bird was a little funnel in the snow, at the bottom of 

 which an anxious eye could be seen. Many less deeply 

 buried birds had freed one wing or both, which became 

 stiff with cold, as they could not be got back again. The 

 snow, melting by the heat of their bodies, and refreezing, 

 made walls of ice round the birds. Many got alarmed and 

 left the nests, when the snow fell in and buried them. In 

 the warm sunny weather that followed the melting snow 

 filled many nests with pools of water. Some birds showed 

 ingenuity in deahng with these floods. They moved their 

 nests, stone by stone (always keeping a hollow for the 

 eggs or chicks) as much as their own width till they 

 reached dry ground. While the snowdrift remained some 

 birds whose nests were buried scraped hollows in the snow 

 and collected a few stones. On a moderate estimate about 

 half the young perished in this blizzard. 



The old Adelies do not mind the cold. Their thick 

 blubber and dense fur sufficiently protect them. In a 

 blizzard they will lie still and let the snow cover them. 

 Going to the rookery once after a blizzard I could see no 

 penguins; they had entirely disappeared. Suddenly at 

 some movement or noise I was surrounded by them; they 

 had sprung up out of the snow. 



Domestic Entanglements 



While the Adelie appears to be entirely moral in his 

 domestic arrangements, his stupidity (or his short-sight- 

 edness which causes him to seem stupid) gives rise to many 



Vol. II.-17 257 



