"The only deviation from these acknowledged tracks was made when one or more of us ten human beings appeared near their road. Then the Penguin who first discovered us, with a hoarse little croak, would break the line and start off towards us. On reaching us he would stop, and gradually all the Penguins would stop behind him, in the same way as railway carriages stop when the engine ahead is pulled up. The first Penguin, having inspected us from one point of view, would start to walk round us, the others gravely following. The first birds, having satisfied their curiosity, started off, joining the main track by a short cut. Looking at them from behind, the contours of their dark backs stood sharply cut out against the white snow. This, in addition to their slow gait, their frequent halts, their grave and unearthly silence while walking in their ordered lines, irresistibly conveyed to the human mind an impression of a Lilliputian funeral procession."
The Essex Field Club has reached maturity, and its "coming of age" was the subject of an address by its president, Prof. Meldola, of which we have received a copy. As we read:—The actual work accomplished down to the present time will be found in the nineteen volumes of publications; five volumes of 'Transactions' and 'Proceedings,' and, commencing in 1887, eleven volumes of the 'Essex Naturalist,' together with the three volumes of 'Special Memoirs.' It is not only by the number of printed pages, however, that the work will be judged in the future. A study of the contents of these nineteen volumes will show that the Club has on the whole kept faithfully to the programme as set forth in its original rules:—"The investigation of the natural history, geology, and archaeology of the County of Essex (special attention being given to the fauna, flora, geology, and antiquities of Epping Forest); the publication of the results of such investigations, &c."
We learn from the Report of the Hampstead Scientific Society for the year 1901, that it is hoped that the material for the publication of "The Fauna and Flora of Hampstead and its Neighbourhood" will be sufficiently advanced for the first part to appear in the autumn of 1902. The General Editors are Mr. Basil W. Martin and Dr. J.W. Williams, with the assistance of Messrs. Hugh Findon, Montagu F. Hopson, C.S. Nicholson, the Rev. F.A. Walker, and Mr. James E. Whiting.
