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Show PENGUIN MOST AMUSING BIRD Life and Habits of This Queer Polar Resident Prepared by National Geocraphlc Society. Washington. D. C. WNU Service. THE penguin colony of the London Lon-don zoo recently presented a new problem to its keepers ivhen these natives of frigid Antarctica Ant-arctica suffered from bronchitis. Among other things, mufflers were provided In an attempt to save the birds, which are worth several hundred hun-dred dollars a pair. While there are several species of penguins, the Adelie of Antarctica, which was a source of amusement to members of the Byrd South Pole expedition. ex-pedition. Is, perhaps, the most entertaining. enter-taining. The Adelie penguin resembles nothing noth-ing so much as a solemn, rotund little lit-tle old gentleman in starched shirt and swallow-tail coat And the bird's habits are as strange as his appearance. appear-ance. He spends his whole allotted span within the Antarctic Circle, supplying sup-plying that desolate region of ice and snow with one of its few notes of life. His wings are water-wings, which serve him for naught in the air. Like man, he proposes to the lady of his heart by proffering her a stone. He walks erect, toddling along with precise and preoccupied mien, as though bent on some most important business, but more often than not this attitude is only a pose. Time is really no object to him. and after hurrying away in one direction he is likely to turn and retrace his steps or dash away in some other. Perhaps he may even stop suddenly and, tucking his head beneath a flipper, go calmly to sleep. If pursued or desiroui of moving over soft snow in a hurry, he turns himself into a toboggan by dropping down on his smooth-feathered breast and skidding gayly along, propelled by both feet and flippers. Indeed his idiosyncracies are legion, and they make him the most interesting of Antarctic Ant-arctic creatures and endear him to every explorer of the desolate South Polar regions. Belongs to a First Family. This strangely manlike bird is truly an F. F. A. (First Family of the Antarctic), Ant-arctic), tracing his ancient lineage back to those halcyon days of the earth's youth before the coming of t he The Penguin, Resident of Antarctica. great glaciers. Th-n, In a temperate or perhaps even tropical climate, It Is probable that his ancestors flew like other birds. I'.ut as centuries passed Into agi-s and cold creit over the land, killing all vegetation, the penguins were forced to seek sustenance In the sea. Kventually their wings adapted themselves to the new mode of life and became the flippers that they are today. Adelie' Is a gregarious creature, and In October and November (the Antarctic Ant-arctic spring) he congregates, along with countless thousands of his kind, In great rookeries. There the age-old business of choosing a mate is his flrst consideration; but, as with true love elsewhere, the course of his romance Is not nlways sniooih. Afler deciding In his own mind on the fair lady he would wed, he must not only win her favor but also vanquish van-quish whatever rivals may present themselves. 11 achieving tllO first of these designs, he takes a small stone In his beak and lays It humbly at the lady's feet. This gift Is accompanied by a soulful gaze from bis whlte-rininied whlte-rininied eyes and nn unniolodioiis "pia.'irk" from the bottom (if his heart. Very likely he will have to repeat this performance a number of times before he succeeds In breaking through her bashful feminine reserve; but he Is nothing If not persistent, and finally she yields to bis Import unit ies to the extent of giving him a critical glance. Thus encouraged, lie assumes his grandest posture and invites further Ins) lion. If be pleases her, the lady scuuks her approval, he adds his vocal efforts to make It a duet, and both sway and stretch and gaze hem i'Iih aril In an eeslucy of pengulniil bliss. Rivals Have Vlclom Fightt. I'.ut gentlemen penguins are not only good lovers, they are extremely pugnacious pugna-cious ns v,oll, and when mere llian one Hoinoo In iiHracled to the same Juliet, a merry friicns is likely to ensue. With beaks ami flippers they go for each oilier, ilelivcring vicious cuts and stabs :ni, I mining blows nboiil lliein with ..ii. Ii speed licit tin' (o can . hardlv follow. If the fair object oT all this excitement has a preleren.e for one of the combatants, she may enter (lie fray on his side; but more often she will sit serenely by while her admirers do battle. Eventually one of them will beat a forced retreat and leave the spoils of war to his conqueror. After courtship comes the Important business of nest-building; and this, too, is accompanied by much ado. An Adelie's nest consists of a loose pile of small stones, quite unadorned or softened with lining; but, unfortunately unfortunate-ly for the peace of the avian community, com-munity, there is not in the near vicinity vicin-ity a sufficient supply of such building material to go around. Then does temptation enter Into the life of a penguin. pen-guin. His soul is filled with a great desire and he longs to supply his wife with more and better stones for the construction of their little love nest, but there are none to be had, with honor. Soon he covets those within his neighbor's stone pile, and, having thus broken one commandment, he skids farther along the downward path and before long .is engaged In taking what he can while the neighbor isn't looking. Constant vigilance Is the price that must be paid for keeping a stone bungalow bunga-low under one's feathers in a city of penguins. After the 'newlyweds have become proficient enough at the gentle art of purloining stones to be able to maintain main-tain a nest, two eggs are laid and the process of incubation commences. This lasts about a month, with both birds participating, for they have a strong parental instinct and sit patiently for long hours at a time to protect their eggs from the harsh .Antarctic blasts. While sitting on the nests, hen birds amuse themselves by attempting to reach out with their beaks and lift a stone from the pile next door. If detected, de-tected, and they frequently are, this Is a signal for a squabble, and, without with-out leaving their nests, the two ladies try to bite out each other's tongues. Happily, they seldom succeed. Chicks Are Always Hungry. When hatched, the chicks are little balls of sooty down, and they wear their "baby clothes" for some weeks before exchanging them for suits of feathers. They start getting hungry soon after they are hatched, and continue con-tinue in a state of unnppeased appetite appe-tite as long as there is the smallest empty space within their elastic young bodies. Adobes live largely on a small, red, shrlmplike crustacean which occurs in amazing numbers In the Antarctic seas. There is little or nothing for them to eat on the land, and therefore, until the chicks are fully developed and able to take care of themselves in the wa-i wa-i ter, they must be fed. This their el-' el-' tiers accomplish by means of regurgita-j regurgita-j tion. The hogy man for baby penguins takes the form of a skua gull. This unpleasant bird conceives its mission in life to he the prevention of overpopulation over-population among the Adelies. and woe he uuto the unwary chick which xvan-lers xvan-lers away from its comrades. A Marauding skua wjjl drop down beside be-side it and with a few savage blows f Its strong beak end the chick's arthly career and feast upon the re-nains. re-nains. Adelies have never been successfully : ransplanted from snowy wastes, now-ever, now-ever, some of their cousins have survived sur-vived the milder temperatures of Europe Eu-rope p.ud America and are to be found in certain of the larger zoological gardens. gar-dens. One may visit a pair at the National Zoological park at Washington, D. C, and find them well disposed. As you enter the inclosure both of them come forward with grave and dignified demeanor de-meanor and emit "quaarks" of greeting. greet-ing. Coining closer, they give you a careful Inspection, out of first one eye and then the other, and then sit down with an air of resignation and an expression of utter boredom. Tour feelings are a bit ruffled until the keeper assures you that their behavior be-havior Is due to the keen disappointment disappoint-ment they experienced on finding that you were not a fish. When the new wing of the birdhouse at the Washington zoo Is built, one end of It Is to hold a large glassed Inclosure. In-closure. Within this. Ice machines are to create an Antarctic atmosphere. In which It Is hoped that a colony of penguins pen-guins will live and flourish. Perhaps science will yet devise n means whereby where-by those of us who cannot well travel to the South polo may nevertheless enjoy en-joy the captivating drollery of the Adelie penguin, most Interesting residents resi-dents of Antartlca. |