EMPEROR PENGUIN.. 
Probably for the first month or two of its life each, chicken puts on rather 
more than half a pound per week, but in its third or fourth months this average 
must be largely increased, for in January the chick reaches a bulk equal to 
about half that of an adult bird, and probably weighs as much as 30 lbs. 
The voice of the chick is a very sin-ill rattling pipe or whistle when it is 
hungry. First it lowers its head to the ground, craning the neck to its full ex¬ 
tent, and then suddenly swings it up as far as it will go, rattling out a very 
shrill piercing whistle of four notes. It is a crescendo pipe, rising in pitch 
and in shrillness and suddenly dropping at the end note. Out on the ice in 
the open air the rookery sounds as though it were full of farmyard chickens. 
In captivity a chick used to be constantly preening its downy feathers, and 
then, standing upright, would crane its neck and quickly flap its wings back¬ 
wards and forwards as one sees a young duckling do, making a quaint subdued 
little crowing noise at the same time. The movements of the eyes and eyelids 
were most peculiar, the eyes being so set in the head of the chick that, without 
turning sideways, it could see everything above it. Owing to the absence of any 
eyebrows the cornea was almost flush with the convex outline of the head, 
which was covered by a very short and velvety down. The legs were set 
widely apart, and with the capacious abdomen and the immense beam of the 
hind quarters formed a most stable support for the agile neck and for the head, 
which was shot in various directions with great rapidity, the bird being exceedingly 
inquisitive and ever ready to peck and worry at an intruding hand. 
The birds breed at Cape Crosier, which is a focus for wind and storm, 
where every breath is converted, by the configuration of Mounts Erebus and 
Terror, into a regular drifting blizzard full of snow. 
