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Polar Record. Page 1 of 7.
c
Cambridge University Press 2012. doi:10.1017/S0032247412000216 1
Dr. George Murray Levick (1876–1956): unpublished notes
on the sexual habits of the Adélie penguin
Douglas G.D. Russell
Bird Group, Department of Zoology, Natural History Museum, Akeman Street, Tring, HP23 6AP
(d.russell@nhm.ac.uk)
William J.L. Sladen
Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, c/o PO Box 3014, Warrenton, VA 20188, USA.
David G. Ainley
H.T. Harvey & Associates, 983 University Avenue, Los Gatos, CA 95032 USA.
Received January 2012
ABSTRACT. A previously unpublished four-page pamphlet by Dr. George Murray Levick R.N. (1876–1956) on the
‘Sexual habits of the Adélie penguin’ was recently rediscovered at the Natural History Museum (NHM) at Tring. It
was printed in 1915 but declined for publication with the official expedition reports. The account, based upon Levick’s
detailed field observations at Cape Adare (71
◦
18
S, 170
◦
09
E) during the course of the British Antarctic (Terra N ova)
Expedition 1910, commented on frequency of sexual activity, autoerotic behaviour, and seemingly aberrant behaviour
of young unpaired males and females including necrophilia, sexual coercion, sexual and physical abuse of chicks,
non-procreative sex and homosexual behaviour. His observations were however accurate, valid and, with the benefit
of hindsight, deserving of publication. Here we publish the pamphlet in its entirety, reinterpret selected observations
and comment on its significance as a forgotten work by the pioneer of research on Adélie penguin Pygoscelis adeliae
(Hombron and Jacquinot 1841) biology.
Introduction
Dr. George Murray Levick, Surgeon R.N. (1876–1956),
published two important accounts of the Adélie penguin
Pygoscelis adeliae (Hombron and Jacquinot 1841) during
his lifetime. As surgeon and officer on the British Ant-
arctic (Terra Nova ) Expedition, 1910, his position gave
him considerable opportunity to study Adélie penguins
at the four Victoria Land colonies (known in Levick’s
day and up to the 1960s as ‘rookeries’) that he visited:
firstly, Cape Royds (77
◦
34
S, 166
◦
11
E) in January 1911,
then extensive studies at Cape Adare (71
◦
18
S, 170
◦
09
E)
from mid February 1911 to early January 1912, which
included a short visit to Duke of York Island (71
◦
37
S,
170
◦
02
E) in October 1911, and lastly brief observa-
tions at Evans Cove on Inexpressible Island (74
◦
53
S,
165
◦
45
E) in February 1912.
Levick was one of the six members of the ‘Northern
Party’ led by Lieutenant Victor L.A. Campbell, R.N
(1875–1956). Originally named the ‘Eastern Party’, they
were initially charged with scientifically researching and
exploring King Edward VII Land, a large, ice-covered
peninsula that forms the north-western extremity of
Marie Byrd Land and, projecting into the ocean between
Sulzberger Bay and the northeast corner of the Ross Ice
Shelf, the eastern boundary of the Ross Sea. After finding
Roald Amundsen’s South Pole expedition (1910–1912)
encamped at the natural ice harbour at the Bay of Whales,
Campbell’s party was hastily re-named the ‘Northern
Party’, with the equally scientific aim of exploring the
coast westward of Cape North (Lambert 2004; Hooper
2010). This was undoubtedly one of the most important
endeavours of the entire British Antarctic Expedition and
included a wide range of investigations by Campbell
(surveying and magnetic observations), Levick (photo-
grapher and zoologist) and Raymond E. Priestley (1886–
1974) (geology, microbiology and meteorology). They
were ably assisted by their three ‘adaptable helpers’:
Petty Officer George P. Abbott, R.N. (d. 1926), Petty
Officer Frank V. Browning, R.N., and Seaman Harry
Dickason, R.N (1885–1943).
The Northern Party arrived at Ridley Beach, Cape
Adare, Victoria Land (the north westernmost point of the
Ross Sea), on 13 February 1911. They remained to study
the area for 11 months through the following winter and
summer, until they were retrieved by Terra Nova on 3
January 1912. Following a ten-day sledging trip from 4–
14 October 1911, Levick spent much of the twelve weeks
that preceded their departure from Cape Adare in the
midst of the Adélie penguin colony, now known to be
the largest in the world for this species, taking photo-
graphs and detailed notes. These notes, his photographs
(NHMUK DF211/93) and nine Adélie penguin skins
(NHMUK 1916.6.20.38–45, 1916.6.20.125) collected by
Levick in November and December 1911, remain an
important source of information regarding the colony at
Cape Adare in the period. Levick wrote a detailed two
volume daily account of his zoological observations at
Cape Adare now held in a private collection. Vol. I:
‘Zoological notes from Cape Adare’ covers the period
from their arrival at Ridley Beach until 9 December
1911 whilst Vol. II: ‘Zoological notes from Cape Adare’
covers 12 December–31 December 1911 (Levick 1911).
Both these unpublished volumes (hereafter referred to
as notebooks) measure 26 cm × 21 cm and comprise in
2 RUSSELL, SLADEN, AND AINLEY
total 125 pages of tightly written script, the majority of
which is devoted to observations at the Adélie colony
at Cape Adare from the arrival of the first penguin on
13 October to the last entry on 31 December 1911. The
notebooks contain his day to day scientific observations
on all matters zoological and are rich in detail. Many
observations are purely scientific in their focus, but even
his peripheral remarks are informative. For example, in
describing the size of the colony, Levick wrote on 22
October 1911:
it would be difficult to estimate the number that
poured into the rookery today,
imagine a backwoods-
man arriving suddenly in the midst of 20 square miles
of Hampstead Heath on a bank holiday or of Epsom
Downs on Derby Day would be comparatively placid
with these little pilgrims [sic] (Levick 1911).
This aside is perhaps more telling then it might seem on
face value. A fair has been held on Hampstead Heath
since the late 19th century, traditionally over Easter
and other bank holidays. It was extremely popular at
the time: 30,000–50,000 people often attended a bank
holiday fair. Yet in 1910, a few months before Terra
Nova left for the Antarctic on 15 June, attendance records
had been famously broken on Easter Monday when
an estimated 200,000 people visited the fair (Elrington
1989). The most recent published estimates of the Cape
Adare colony being 272,338 pairs in 1988, decreasing to
169,200 pairs in 1990 (Woehler and Croxall 1997).
The notebooks were used as the basis for the accounts
Levick published on his return. Antarctic penguins – a
study of their social habits (Levick 1914) was a behavi-
oural account, intended for a general audience. It deals
mostly with the Adélie penguin, with short accounts of
McCormick’s skua Megalestris maccormicki ( = Stercor-
arius maccormicki Saunders, 1893) and emperor penguin
Aptenodytes forsteri G.R. Gray, 1844 at the end. The
book was well-received and the American ornithologist,
Witmer Stone’s, review illustrates how widely accepted
the anthropomorphised view of Adélie penguins was:
the book is unique, and will appeal to all ornitholo-
gists, whether their specialty be, habits, behaviour,
oölogy or photography – as well as to the public at
large for whom these strange, erect, man-like little
birds have a strange fascination (Stone 1915).
Levick’s second publication, ‘Natural history of the
Adélie penguin’ (1915), was a more scientific account,
produced for the expedition’s official reports. Like its
predecessor, it contained copious notes on Adélie so-
cial behaviour. Both these accounts made repeated, ill-
defined reference to the behaviour of non-breeding wan-
derers, young inexperienced breeders and experienced
unpaired males (all nebulously termed ‘Hooligan Cocks’
by Levick):
Whilst the chicks are small the two parents manage
to keep them fed without much difficulty; but as one
of them has always to remain at the nest to keep the
chicks warm, guard them from skuas and hooligan
cocks, and prevent them from straying, only one is
free to go for food’ (Levick 1914: 96).
Twice already I have mentioned that strayed chicks
fall a prey to ‘hooligan’ cocks. These hang about
the rookery often in little bands. At the beginning of
the season there are very few of them, but later they
increase greatly, do much damage, and cause a great
deal of annoyance to the peaceful inhabitants. The
few to be found at first probably are cocks who have
not succeeded in finding mates, and consequently
are ‘at a loose end.’ Later on, as their numbers
are so greatly increased, they must be widowers,
whose mates have lost their lives in one way or
another.
Many of the colonies, especially those nearer the
water, are plagued by little knots of ‘hooligans’ who
hang about their outskirts, and should a chick go
astray it stands a good chance of losing its life at
their hands. The crimes which they commit are such
as to find no place in this book, but it is interesting
indeed to note that, when nature intends them to
find employment, these birds, like men, degenerate in
idleness (Levick 1914: 97–98).
As time went on, and the proportion of unmated to
mated birds became smaller and smaller, the cocks
watched each other more jealously, and began to go
about in little batches in consequence, squabbling and
fighting continually and hindering each other in the
quest for mates (Levick 1915: 60)
Levick never elaborated further on this issue in print
and never again published an ornithological text. He
did maintain an interest in ornithology, exploring and
collecting throughout his life. It is also clear that he
kept up his links with the staff at the Natural History
Museum (NHM); as the founder and president of the
Public Schools Exploring Society he arranged for Charles
Darwin’s great grandson, Richard Darwin Keynes, to
have taxidermy lessons on birds at the NHM in the
1930s in preparation for expeditions to Lapland and
Newfoundland (Levick 1936).
It was not until the latter half of the 20th century
that the breeding biology of the Adélie penguin would
be described in more detail, for example by Sladen
(1958) and Taylor (1962). However, a complete, but
previously unpublished printed paper by Levick, entitled
‘The sexual habits of the Adélie penguin’, was recently
rediscovered in the reprints section of the Bird Group
at the NHM. Printed in February 1915, it was excised
from the final published version of ‘Natural history of
the Adélie penguin’ (1915), probably due to what was,
for the times, challenging and graphic content. The ac-
count is extremely interesting and, in his own words,
reveals the behaviour that Levick alluded to but never
described in his other publications. The then Keeper of
Zoology at the NHM, Sidney Frederick Harmer (1862–
1950), wrote to the then curator of birds, William
Robert Ogilvie-Grant (1863–1924), on 6 February 1915
stating:
Sexual habits. We will have this cut out and some
copies printed for our own use. How many should we
want?’ (NHMUK DF200/62/7)
G.M. LEVICK: UNPUBLISHED NOTES ON THE SEXUAL HABITS OF THE ADÉLIE PENGUIN 3
The immediate answer, circled for clarity, was for
‘100’. Consequently one hundred four-page pamphlets
(typescript 23cm x 31cm, folded sheet giving 4 pages)
were apparently printed; each with the bold header ‘Not
for Publication’. Of these, almost all the original copies
have seemingly been lost, or destroyed, as only two have
currently been found. Another of the 98 original copies
may come to light in future as some were certainly dis-
tributed, for example Lionel Walter Rothschild’s (1868–
1937) personal copy of the British Antarctic (‘Terra
Nova’) Expedition, 1910. Natural History Report – ZO-
OLOGY. Vol. I, in the Ornithology Library, NHM, in-
cludes a copy of ‘Sexual habits’ inserted between pages
84–85.
As far as we have been able to establish, the ob-
servations in the pamphlet have never been referred to
in any subsequent work on Adélie penguins. The single
remaining unbound pamphlet is now preserved in the
Ornithology Library at the NHM (MSS. LEVICK) and
is reproduced in its entirety as Appendix 1.
The pamphlet concentrated on observations of sexual
behaviours in Adélie penguins at Cape Adare in 1911
and comments on frequency of sexual activity, autoerotic
behaviour, and most notably, seemingly aberrant beha-
viour of young unpaired males and females including
necrophilia, sexual coercion, sexual and physical abuse of
chicks, non-procreative sex and homosexual behaviour. It
is clear that Harmer was not the only person concerned
about the wider availability of such information; Levick
himself was equally cautious. References to these obser-
vations in the notebooks have often been coded by his
rewriting certain entries on these behaviours using the
Greek alphabet and then pasting this new text over the
original entry (Fig. 1), whilst some entries were written
directly in the Greek alphabet. Such coded entries are
found in his notebooks on 17 October, 25 October, 10
November and the 5 December 1911. These correspond
to the events described in his ‘Sexual Habits’ pamphlet
(Appendix 1), for example on 10 November 1911, Levick
wrote in his notebook:‘
ις αφτ ερνooνισαυαμoστ εχτραoρδιαρι
σιτε. α πενγυιν υας ακτυαλλι ενγαγεδ ιν
σ oδoμι υπ oνθεβoδυ oφ α δεαδ υιατε θρoατεδ
βιρδ oφιτςoυς σπεσιες. ε ακτ occυρεδ α
φυλλ μινυτε, θε πoσιτιoντακενυπβυθεκoχ
διφφερινγ ιν νo ρεσπεκτ φρoμθατ oφ oρδιναρι
κoπυλατιoν, ανδ θε υoλε ακτ υας γ oνε θρoυ,
δoυν τ
o θε φιναλ δεπρεσσιoν oφθεχλoακα
[This afternoon I saw a most extraordinary site [sic].
A Penguin was actually engaged in sodomy upon
the body of a dead white throated bird of its own
species. The act occurred a full minute, the position
taken up by the cock differing in no respect from that
of ordinary copulation, and the whole act was gone
through down to the final depression of the cloaca]
However, not every entry on sexual behaviour in the
notebooks is coded, for example on 17 December 1911
he wrote ‘copulation is still of common occurrence and
frequently takes place on nests with two chicks hatched
out’. Use of the Greek alphabet to encode entries is
inconsistently applied but the reasoning behind this is un-
clear. For example, whilst his 10 November observation
in the notebook was encoded, a situation he witnessed
26 days later (6 December), which he clearly found
equally shocking, was openly recorded in English in the
notebook:
I saw another act of astonishing depravity today. A
hen which had been in some way badly injured in
the hindquarters was crawling painfully along on her
belly. I was just wondering whether I ought to kill
her or not, when a cock noticed her in passing, and
went up to her. After a short inspection he deliberately
raped her, she being quite unable to resist him.
This observation, lacking date and the emotive term
‘raped’ (though clearly implied), is reproduced almost
verbatim in ‘Sexual habits’ (Appendix 1). His full ac-
count of the incident in his notebook clearly shocked him
and forced him to conclude the entry with: ‘There seems
to be no crime too low for these Penguins’.
Levick’s observations of sexual behaviour of the
Adélie penguins at Cape Adare are unusual in their focus.
He made no in depth attempt to interpret or explain
them; indeed he largely dismisses them as ‘depraved’.
This is understandable in the context of the age, and
the subsequent decision not to include them in the main
scientific publication suggests an inability of the science
of the period to either acknowledge or interpret the be-
haviour. However, the very fact that Levick recorded the
behaviour and submitted an account of it for publication
is interesting; his position and training as a medical
surgeon, and his under-employment in that role, may
have permitted him to record objectively behaviours that
others may not have wished or indeed had time to reveal.
Zoologists are certainly now more free to publish on
these allegedly unusual behaviours than in Levick’s time,
for example same-sex sexual behaviour has now been
widely documented in animals (Bagemihl 1999; Bailey
and Zuk 2009; Poiani 2010).
All the ‘sexual habits’ Levick notes in the pamphlet
(Appendix 1) are explicable in the context of a modern
understanding of behaviour. Although Levick included
the coded 10 November entry from his notebook in the
‘Sexual habits’ pamphlet, his later reaction to having seen
a live Adélie interacting sexually with a dead conspecific
remained one of unmitigated revulsion rather than ob-
jective analysis. His write up in the pamphlet (Appendix
1) continued to interpret the behaviour as depraved, that
is immoral or corrupt, rather than attempting any form
of behavioural analysis. Yet the behaviour is clearly not
analogous to necrophilia in the human context, that is a
paraphilia characterised by a sexual attraction to corpses.
For example, writing about a field observation of similar
conspecific behaviour in the 13-striped ground squirrel
Citellus tridecemlineatus [ = Ictidomys tridecemlineatus
(Mitchill, 1821)], Dickerman (1960) termed the beha-
viour ‘Davian behaviour complex’ and speculated that
4 RUSSELL, SLADEN, AND AINLEY
Fig. 1. Detail of entry from Vol. I of G.M. Levick’s ‘Zoological notes from Cape Adare’ on 10 November 1911 showing
coded reference in the Greek alphabet.
the dead female’s positioning released the copulatory
drive in the male, which at that point in the breeding
season had a low stimulus threshold for the act. Such
behaviour in birds has since been noted in European
swallow Hirundo r. rustica Linnaeus, 1758 (Libois 1984),
mallard Anas p. platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 (Lehner
1988; Weston 1988; Moeliker 2001), sand martin Riparia
r. riparia (Linnaeus, 1758) (Dale 2001), grey-backed
sparrow-lark Eremopterix verticalis (Smith, 1836) and
Stark’s lark Calandrella starki [= Eremalauda starki
(Shelly, 1902)] (Ryan 2008).
It was the very predictability of many of these
sexual behaviours, interpreted by Levick as depraved,
that allowed Ainley (1974a, 1974b, 1978) to study non-
breeding individuals of Adélie penguin at the Cape
Crozier colony 1968–1976. After witnessing similar be-
haviour to that noted by Levick, Ainley devised a manip-
ulative experiment to record the behaviour of lone males
when a dead penguin, frozen into the position assumed
by females during copulation, was placed in a nest. The
releasing display on the part of a female who is receptive
to copulation is to lie in the nest in a submissive posture
(feathers sleeked, eyes not widely opened). Ainley (1978)
found that breeding males, prior to pairing, or older non-
breeders acted directly on the dead penguin model; either
copulating with it or attempting to expel it from the nest.
Younger non-breeding males were likely to display but
otherwise act less directly, whereas older males at this
point in the breeding season appear to find any bird
in such a position, be it a chick, injured, of the same
sex or, as in this case, dead, irresistible. The behaviour
is so fixed that when, in the course of the experiment
mentioned, the dead penguin model became damaged by
repeat deployments, it was found that just the frozen head
of the penguin, with self-adhesive white ‘O’s’ for eye
rings, propped upright on wire with a large rock for a
body, was sufficient stimulus for males to copulate and
deposit sperm on the rock. The amount and viability of
that semen was related by Ainley to the penguin’s age in
order to assess the progression of physiological maturity
(not achieved in males until age 4 years, or later).
Levick was the pioneer of research on Adélie penguin
biology and his observations were accurate, valid and,
with the benefit of hindsight, deserving of publication.
We have since reinterpreted the behaviours that he no-
ticed, but all those researchers who have come after him
owe him appreciation for making them. He remains the
only person to have published on the colony at Cape
Adare, the largest of all the Adélie penguin colonies. Had
he had a longer study period, easier conditions in which
to work and the benefits of studying banded birds of
known age, he might have been afforded the opportunity
of interpreting his observations in more depth. Neverthe-
less, it seems appropriate that nearly a century later, his
observations, as he intended them to be read, should be
fully available to the scientific community
Acknowledgements
At the NHM we thank Dr. Robert Prys-Jones for com-
ments on earlier drafts of this manuscript and Dr. Eva
Valsami-Jones for her help on deciphering the Greek
G.M. LEVICK: UNPUBLISHED NOTES ON THE SEXUAL HABITS OF THE ADÉLIE PENGUIN 5
text. We also are grateful to Matt Lowe and Peter Carey
for providing helpful comments on an earlier draft. We
are also indebted to Richard Kossow for granting access
to G.M. Levick’s ‘Zoological notes from Cape Adare’
(Vol. I–II) and permission to reproduce sections of these
important original manuscripts. DA was funded in re-
viewing this material by National Science Foundation
grant ANT-0944411.
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6 RUSSELL, SLADEN, AND AINLEY
Appendix 1. ‘Sexual habits of the Adélie penguin’ by. G.M. Levick.
[Not for Publication.]
BRITISH MUSEUM (NATURAL HISTORY).
THE SEXUAL HABITS OF THE
ADÉLIE PENGUIN.
BY STAFF-SURGEON G. MURRAY LEVICK, R.N.
[The following account is based on observations made by Dr. Levick at Cape Adare during the course of the British Antarctic (Terra
Nova) Expedition, 1910. It was printed in February 1915, but it has not been published.]
ON their arrival at the rookery pairing takes place among the penguins, in the manner I have described elsewhere.
Mated couples copulate very frequently; sometimes more than once a day, not only before the eggs have been laid, but for
long after, and I have seen a cock copulating with a hen as she sat on her two eggs on the nest, and later, after the chicks were well
grown.
It is evident that in a vast rookery such as that, at Cape Adare, when comparatively few unmated birds are left, many of
these, scattered in that great crowd, may seek one another for many days, and that some, perhaps, never meet at all.
Owing, no doubt, to the fact that the season had arrived when their sexual functions were at the height of their activity, and
in part to the sights and sounds which surrounded them constantly, cocks were often seen whose passions seemed to have passed
beyond their control. Sometimes we saw these birds, after walking some distance, apparently in the vain search for hens, stand
motionless and rigid upon the ground, then stiffening themselves, assume the attitude and go through the motions characteristic of
the sexual act, in some cases actually ejecting their semen on to the ground.
This, however, was the least depraved of the acts which we saw. Strewn about all Antarctic rookeries are the dead bodies of
many hundreds of penguins, from the adult to the newly-hatched chick, which have succumbed for various reasons during previous
years.
Owing to the low temperature prevailing, these bodies are preserved in good condition for a long time, several years
passing in many cases before they lose their fresh appearance, whilst many of those that have died the year before are still preserved
in good plumage.
On November 10th, i.e. when the season was already a month advanced, I saw a cock engaged in the sexual act upon the
dead body of a white-throated Adélie of the previous year. This took somewhat over a minute, the position taken up by the cock
differing in no way from that of normal copulation, and the whole act was gone through, down to the final depression of the cloaca
and emission of semen.
On returning to the hut I told one of my companions what I had seen, and to my surprise he at once said that he had on
several occasions seen the same thing done to dead bodies along the ice-foot. Later on, this sight was by no means uncommon.
As the season advanced, the number of unmated cocks increased to a great extent, partly from the reasons already given,
partly owing to the large number of homes now being broken up owing to accidental destruction of the eggs, depredations of Skuas,
etc., and also in a large measure to the ravages of the Sea-leopards gathered in the sea in the vicinity of the rookery. These unmated
cocks congregate in little “hooligan” bands of half a dozen or more, and hang about the outskirts of the knolls, whose inhabitants
they annoy by their constant acts of depravity.
I have said that cramp or some sort of paralysis occasionally attacks the penguins after they have been in the sea.
One day I was watching a hen painfully dragging herself across the rookery on her belly, using her flippers for propulsion
as her legs trailed uselessly behind her.
As I was just wondering whether I ought to kill her or not, a cock, seeing her pass, ran out from the outskirts of a
neighbouring knoll and went up to her. After a short inspection he deliberately copulated with her, she being, of course, quite
unable to resist him. He had hardly left her before another cock ran up, and, without any hesitation, tried to mount her. He fell off
at first, and then, desisting, stole two stones from neighbouring nests, dropped them one after the other in front of her, after which
he mounted and performed the sexual act.
When he had gone, the poor hen struggled on about twenty yards, and then another cock ran up to her, and was just going
to do the same thing when a fourth came up and fought him, driving him away, and afterwards did as the others had done.
After this, the hen, who now seemed much more lively, struggled on, and had gone about ten yards further, when no less
than three more cocks gave chase, all trying to climb on to her at once, but this ended in a short fight, after which they went their
several ways.
The hen lay still, doubtless being much in need of rest and as the poor thing evidently knew her way, and was making in
a straight line, I left her, deciding that she might recover if she reached her own nest.
Commander Campbell, whom I called up, witnessed the above scene with me.
Later on, I went out and found the hen again. She was much better, and able to stand up and hobble about on her legs. Her
back, I am sorry to say, bore signs of further indignities, though she was for the time in peace.
When the chicks are young, the parents take great pains to keep them on their own nests, though occasionally they stray
and lose their lives as a result. Very often they suffer indignity and death at the hands of the hooligan cocks, the waste of life
resulting from this being very considerable. Frequently we saw strayed chicks sexually misused by these hooligans, some of them
being crushed to such an extent that they died in consequence.
On one occasion one of the two chicks which were with their mother on a nest strayed away a short distance, and was at
once caught by a hooligan cock, who misused it before the very eyes of its parent. The latter kept to her nest and the other chick
G.M. LEVICK: UNPUBLISHED NOTES ON THE SEXUAL HABITS OF THE ADÉLIE PENGUIN 7
whilst this took place, and when the strayed chick escaped from the cock and ran back to her, she would have nothing to do with it.,
pecking it whenever it attempted to return to the nest. Eventually it abandoned the attempt, and tried to get itself adopted by several
other parents, none of which would have it, and it was so severely pecked that I was obliged at length to kill it to put it out of its
pain.
The hooligan cocks seemed always to be on the watch for these strayed chicks, and as some of the colonies constantly
had a little knot of these hanging about their outskirts, a chick, once it had lost itself, was almost certain to come to a speedy end in
this way, should it not first be carried off by a Skua.
Later in the season, as I have said, a large number of homes were broken up owing to the death of one or other of their
occupants. On the southern edge of the rookery, close to the ice-foot and away from the nests, was a stretch of basaltic shingle. This
became the haunt of a number of desolate mates, a large group of whom were always to be seen there, standing or squatting on the
stones.
Many of the hens made scoops in the shingle and lay in them, and though cocks repeatedly had sexual intercourse with
them, no second attempt was made to form a home, and no nests appeared on the site of the scoops.
Here on one occasion I saw what. I took to be a cock copulating with a hen. When he had finished, however, and got off,
the apparent hen turned out to be a cock, and the act was again performed with their positions reversed, the original “hen” climbing
on to the back of the original cock, whereupon the nature of their proceeding was disclosed.
