As regards meetings, Emperors were very ceremonious, whether meeting other Emperors, men, or dogs. They came up to a party of strangers in a straggling procession, some big aldermanic fellow leading. At a respectful distance they halted, and the old male waddled close up and bowed gravely until his head almost touched his breast. With his head still bowed he made a long speech in a muttering manner, and having finished his speech he still kept his head bowed for a few seconds for politeness sake, and then raising it he described with his bill as large a circle as the joints of his neck would allow, and finally looked into our faces to see if we understood. If we had not, as usually was the case, he tried again.
He was infinitely patient with our stupidity, but his followers were not so patient with him, and presently they would become sure that he was making a mess of it. Then another male would waddle forward and elbow the first Emperor aside as if to say, "I'll show you how it ought to be done," and went again through the whole business.
Their most solemn ceremonies were used towards the dogs, and three old fellows were seen calmly bowing and speaking at the same time to a dog, which was yelping and straining at its chain in the desire to get at them.
Left to themselves the Emperor penguins seemed perfectly peaceable, but if they did use their flippers they could strike forward or backward with equal ease.
They seemed to regard men as penguins like themselves, but if a man walked too fast among them or touched them they were frightened and ran away, only fighting when closely pressed. As one slowly retreated, fighting, he had a ludicrous resemblance to a small boy being bullied by a big one, his flipper being raised in defence towards his foe as he made quick blows at the bully. It was well to keep clear of that flipper, for it was very powerful and might easily break an arm.
Many of the stupid acts of both kinds of penguins are doubtless to be traced to their very defective sight in air, and to this defect one must ascribe the fact that when they fought the blows from their bills always fell short.
The Emperor can hardly be said to migrate, but nevertheless he travels a good deal, and the meaning of some of his journeys remain a mystery.
On journeys they often travel many miles walking erect, when they get along at a very slow shuffle, making only a few inches at each step. In walking thus they keep their balance by means of their tails, which forms a tripod with the legs. When, however, they are on a suitable snow surface, they progressed rapidly by tobogganing, a very graceful motion, when they made sledges of their breasts and propelled themselves by their powerful legs, balancing, and perhaps increasing their speed, by means of their wings.
Eight of them visited the car one day, sledging swiftly towards us, and one obstinate old fellow, who was not going to be hurried away by anybody, had to see the car bearing down upon him before he was persuaded to hustle.
The Adelie is always comical. He pops out of the water with startling suddenness, like a jack-in-the-box, alights on his feet, shakes his tail, and toddles off about his business. He always knows where he wants to go and what he wants to do, and it is difficult to turn him aside from his purpose.