218 British Antarctic Expedition. 
also moves forward principally by a subtle change of 
its centre of gravity. The speed obtained in water by 
penguins is remarkable, and they repeatedly shot up 
through small cracks in the ice, sometimes a couple of 
yards in the air, and a good few yards on to the 
snow-covered ice-floes ; and from the kayaks I often 
watched them in the crystal clear water as they 
rushed under me like so many torpedoes. 
The skuagulls arrived somewhat later than the 
penguins, and their nesting also took place later. 
They had their nests in the heights, for instance, 
1,000 feet up on Cape Adare, amongst the rocks; 
while a small skua rookery was also to be found. some 
50 feet above the peninsula on a small rocky gallery 
close to the perpendicular wall of the cape Them 
eggs were a greyish brown, with dark brown stains, 
generally two eggs were found in each nest. The 
young ones were exceedingly pretty in their fluffy 
coats of light grey down. The old skuas were very 
bold at ordinary times, and attacked us frequently with 
wings and beak when we climbed the rocks; but 
when they had young ones their indomitable courage 
and audacity surpassed that of any other bird of prey 
I have seen. 
The Oceanites Oceanicus also hatched on Victoria 
Land. I found their nests in the cracks of the 
rocks, under stones and boulders. Although we 
secured eggs from them, we got no live young ones, 
but from the multitude of dead young ones in their 
old nests, I should say that very many perish every 
year. Like the rest of the petrels, they always spat 
out the yellow, evil-smelling oil from their beaks when 
in danger. I caught several of them on their nests, 
