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Show Family JVeelcly September 2, H Editors Note: Prince Philip mz a man of action. But on his long voyage to Antarctica aboard the royal yacht "Britannia" he found little foy occupy his time. So he began watching the sea tirds. To his surprise, he 'discovered they were fascinating creatures, and he began snapping pictures of them. Philip has been interested in photography for many years, but he admits that "up until that moment, I don't think I had ever deliberately taken a photograph of a bird in my life." Nevertheless, the results were. so professional that a selection of the prince's photographs have been compiled in a book, which will be published in this country Sept. 26. Phtiip'took all the photographs that illustrate this article except, of course, those in which he appears. is. . , Is ' J- - 0 .... - ' ... 4t 0 1 D 0 In the Antarctic realm of ice and snow, the British prince found his of the wild seas, cold Xjl stormy climate, and barren lands would lead one to believe that no living thing would be willing to go anywhere near Antarctica. Yet I saw a greater variety of birds there than anywhere A LL else. THE STORIES - , ' I managed to make an expedition to a king penguin rookery, where' we also found Adeli, p gentoo, and penguins. not are Penguins very fast on land, and as they are not particularly afraid, it is possible to get right up to them and even hold their flippers. They don't like this much, and they let you hold them with reluctance. . There is a theory that because both sexes appear to be identical, penguins must have matrimonial problems of a very special kind and that mating occurs somehow by trial and error. I And this difficult and rather depressing to believel However, there is no doubt that courtship consists of offering small flat stones to each other for the purpose of making what passes for a nest. Cases bsve been Reported of penguins offering chin-stra- good-manner- ed Family Wetkly, September 2, 19G2 stones to visiting humans. This didn't happen to me, but if penguins cannot tell the difference between humans and themselves there may be , some truth in the theory of trial and error. Whichever way the birds use for solving their problems, the eggs appear, are incubated by the parents in turn, and are hatched. The king and emperor penguins lay one egg, which is hatched on their feet under a fold of skin which forms a pouch over it. Strangely enough, the emperor penguins incubate and hatch their young in the middle of the Antarctic winter. The reason is that they are large birds and grow slowly, so that unless the young are born early in the year, they are not' sufficiently strong to survive the next winter. Penguins may be clumsy on land, but in the sea they are almost as fast as seals and porpoises. If they are really in a hurry, they leap out of the water and dive in again some five feet away. They also can leap three or four feetup onto rock ledges or ice floes, which makes them look as if they had been jerked flut on strings. The penguin rookery may contain any number of birds. The onesi saw must have had two or three thousand birds sitting ana" squabbling making their. way on their feet or on their tummies to and from the sea. Where there is snow, they simply flop forward and toboggan down the slope. Progress upwards is much more laborious. When they get to the water's edge, they always seem reluctant to get in like bathers when the water cold. Eventually, one of a group gets jostled in, and all the others peer over to see what happens. isoo An Enemy Lurks in This caution is dictated by the possible presence and appetite of the leopard seal, which is said to catch and skin penguins in one movement, and toss the skin back into the air. On our way to the survey base in Admiralty Bay, we managed a short expedition to an enor. mous gentoo penguin rookery. As usual, we found a party of elephant seals taking it easy on the beach. Much later, back in London, I gave a talk about this journey to a lot of school children in the Festival Hall. One reporter noted that I had referred to the overpowering smell of the large penguin rookeries and elephant sealdormjtories and concluded I must have a very sensitive nose. At the risk of encouraging the myth, I must tr from lcrpttd frinco the Sea ri Philip, OvU book. "Wirdt ond Southern Wotrn," Copyright (0 1962 by H.R.N. Tfc ! f dinbvrghi to b pvblitHod Sopt. 24 by Horpor 4 Row, f vblUhort, Inc. |