Antarctic Bird Studies

Book excerpt: Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Antarctic Research Series, Volume 12. The birds of Antarctica, and particularly the penguins, have aroused man's interest and his scientific curiosity ever since he first learned of their existence less than two centuries ago. Yet scientific study of them has until recently been only a minor objective of the various expeditions that have visited this most recently discovered and still the least known and least accessible of the continents. The antarctic explorers of the 19th century regarded the birds essentially as a potential source of easily gathered food for men and sled-dogs—and they so used them well into the 20th century. What few bird data and specimens they brought back they acquired largely fortuitously.