The cry of the Emperor is very loud and travels far across the ice. When sledging over the sea-ice in the spring, in the neighbourhood of Cape Adare, a curious sound was heard at times, reminding one strongly of the “overtone” notes of a ship's steam horn. The sounds puzzled us at the time, but I think now that most probably they were made by Emperor penguins.
The egg of the Emperor is white, pyriform in shape, and weighs just under 1 lb.
My own experience of these birds being limited I do not intend to enter deeply into the subject. The only surviving member of the band who visited Cape Crozier during the winter is Mr. Cherry-Garrard, and it is much to be hoped that some day he will write us an account of what he saw there. In the meantime for further details of the habits and morphology of the species, the reader is referred to Dr. Wilson's work, published in the second volume of the British Museum Reports, on the National Antarctic Expedition 1901–1904.
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[(1)] Pygoscelis adeliæ.
[(2)] Sea-Leopard = Stenorhinchus leptonyx.
[(5)] This “watch-bill” was kindly kept for me by Mr. Priestly on his meteorological rounds, the nests being near the thermometer screen.