On returning home I was glad to find that Mr. Bernacchi, who landed at Cape Adare with the "Southern Cross" expedition, says in his account (p. 131) that he also saw penguins interfering and trying to stop others from fighting. Owing to our having several snowfalls without wind, and to the action of the sun on the black rock, which I have mentioned already, the rookery became a mass of slush in many places, and in some of the lower-lying parts actually flooded. In some of these low-lying situations penguins had unwarily made their nests, and there was one particular little colony near our hut which was threatened with total extinction from the accumulation of thaw water. As this trickled down from the higher ground around them, the occupants of the flooded ground exerted all their energies to avert this calamity, and from each nest one of its tenants could be seen making journey after journey for pebbles, which it brought to the one sitting on the nest, who placed stone after stone in position, so that as the water rose the little castle grew higher and higher and kept the eggs dry. One nest in particular I noticed which was as yet a foot or so clear of the water and on dry ground; but whilst the hen sat on this, the cock was working most energetically in anticipation of what was going to happen, and for hours journeyed to and from the nest, each time wading across the little lake to the other side, where he was getting the stones. This scene, which I photographed, is depicted on Fig. 33. In the right-hand corner of the picture the cock is seen in the act of delivering another stone to the hen who is waiting to receive it, whilst some of the nests are actually surrounded by water. Fig. 34 shows another nest, rising like a little island from a thaw pool, the eggs being only just above water. [Illustration: Fig. 42. ADÉLIE LEAPING FROM THE WATER (THIS BIRD JUMPED 4 FEET HIGH AND 10 FEET LONG) (Page 82)] Some time ago I mentioned that there were penguins of weak individuality who allowed others to rob them of their stones, and this was in some cases very noticeable on the flooded ground, and there were one or two nests here which had been almost entirely removed by thieving neighbours. To quote again from my notes. "November 10. This evening I saw a hen penguin trying to sit on a nest with two eggs. The nest had no stones, and was scooped deeply in the ground in a slush of melting snow, so that the eggs were nearly covered with water. The poor hen stood in the water and kept trying to squat down on the eggs, but each time she did so, sat in the water and had to get up again. She was shivering with cold and all bedraggled.