THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



domestic complications. No doubt the presence of our 

 camp upset the social economy, and probably when undis- 

 turbed nothing of the kind would occur. He has little 

 sense of locality and one little heap of stones is very like 

 another, yet pairs seem to have no means of recognising 

 one another but by the rendezvous of the nest. Husbands 

 and wives, parents and children, do not know one another, 

 but if found at the nest are accepted as bond fide. 



All the birds go to their nests without hesitation when 

 they come from the sea by the famihar route, but if taken 

 from their nests to some other part of the rookery some 

 find their way back without difficulty, others are quite lost. 

 They are most puzzled when moved only a little away 

 from home, and they will fight to keep another bird's nest 

 while their own is only a couple of feet away. A bird 

 will defend an egg or chick in the nest, but if it is removed 

 just outside it will peck at it and destroy it. 



Considering these facts it will be evident that if the 

 rookery be disturbed confusion follows. A mere walk 

 among the nests caused innumerable entanglements. One 

 bird would leave the nest in fright, flop down a yard 

 away beside a nest already occupied, or on a nest left 

 exposed by another scared bird. Then one-sided fights 

 would begin, one bird attacking another under the impres- 

 sion that it had usurped its nest, the rightful owner 

 troubling little about the vicious pecking he was receiving, 

 sitting calmly in conscious rectitude. A fight of this 

 Idnd has been watched for an hour at a time, three neigh- 

 bouring nests having been disturbed. One bird had got 

 into another's nest, a second was trying to establish a 

 claim to the occupied nest of a third, and meanwhile the 

 chicks of number one were neglected in the cold. A bird 

 which had no family came and covered the chicks, but 

 looked conscious of wrong doing and kept ready to bolt 



258 



