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Show AMUSING BIRD Life and Habits of This Queer Polar Resident. Prspared by National GeorrapW. Society. Washington. D. - Wl UT, rn THE penguin colony of the London Lon-don zoo recently presented a new problem to Its keepers hen 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. ly pugnacious as well, and when more than one Romeo Is attracted to the same Juliet, a merry fracas Is likely to ensue. With beaks and flippers they go for each other, delivering de-livering vicious cuts and stabs and raining blows about them with such speed that the eye can hardly follow. If the fair object of all this excitement has a preference for one of the combatants, she may enter the fray on his side; but more often she will sit serenely by while her admirers do battle. Eventually Even-tually one of them will beat a forced retreat and leave the spoils of war to his conqueror. After courtship comes the Important Impor-tant business of nest-building; and this, too, Is accompanied by much While there are several species of penguins, the Adelie of Antarctica, Ant-arctica, which was a source of amusement to members of the Byrd South 'Pole expedition, Is, perhaps, the most entertaining. The Adelie penguin, resembles nothing so much as a solemn, rotund ro-tund little old gentleman in starched shirt and swallow-tall coat. And the bird's habits are as strange as his appearance. 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 ado. An Adelie's nest consists of a loose pile of small stones, quite unadorned or softened With lining; but, unfortunately for the peace of the avian community, there Is not In the near vicinity a sufficient supply sup-ply of such building material to go around. Then does temptation enter en-ter Into the life of a penguin. 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 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 desirous of moving over soft snow in a hurry, he turns himself into a toboggan by dropping drop-ping down on his smooth-feathered breast and skidding gayly along, propelled by both feet and flippers. Indeed his Idiosyncracles are legion, le-gion, and they make him the most interesting of Antarctic creatures and endear him to every explorer ot the desolate South Polar regions. re-gions. Belongs to a First Family. This strangely manlike bird Is truly an F. F. A. (First Family of the Antarctic), tracing his ancient lineage back to those halcyon days of the earth's youth before the coming of the great glaciers. 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 neigh-bor Isn't looking. Constant vigilance Is the price that must be paid for keeping a stone bungalow under one's feathers feath-ers In a city of penguins. After the newlyweds have become be-come proficient enough at the gentle gen-tle art of purloining stones to be able to maintain a nest, two eggs are laid and the process of Incubation Incuba-tion commences. This lasts about a month, with both birds participating, partici-pating, 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 at-tempting to reach out with their beaks and lift a stone from the pile next door. If detected, and they frequently are, this is a signal sig-nal for a squabble, and, without 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 get-ting hungry soon after they are hatched, and continue in a state of unappeased appetite as long as there Is the smallest empty space within their elastic young bodies. Adelies live largely on a small, red, shrimplike 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 water, wa-ter, they must be-fed. This their elders accomplish by means of regurgitation. The bogy man for baby penguins takes the form of a skua gull. This unpleasant bird conceives its' mission mis-sion in life to be the prevention of overpopulation among the Adelies, Ad-elies, and woe be unto the unwary chick which wanders away from Its comrades. A marauding skua will drop down beside It and with a few savage blows of its strong beak end the chick's earthly career and feast upon Hip Tommi The Penguin, Interesting Resident of Antarctica. Then, In a temperate or nerhans even tropical climate, It is probable prob-able that his ancestors flew like other birds. But as centuries passed Into ages and cold crept over the land, killing all vegetation, vegeta-tion, the penguins were forced to seek sustenance-In the sea Eventually Even-tually their wings adapted themselves them-selves 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 nar0tISPring) he conSregates, a ong with countless thousands of his kind, in great rookeries There the age old business of choosing a mate is his first consideration; but, as with true love elsewhere , the course of his romance Is no always smooth. Adelies have never been successfully success-fully transplanted from snowy wastes. However, some of their cousins have survived the milder temperatures of Europe and America Amer-ica and are to be found In certain of the larger zoological gardens One may visit a pair at the National Na-tional Zoological park at Washington, Washing-ton, p. C, and find them well dis- bofh yU enter the Inclosure both of them come forward with grave and dignified demeanor and emit quaarks" of greeting. Com-closer, Com-closer, they give you a caref 1 nspection, out of first one eye a d 25 -t,ler; nnd then eVrl a'r f res,tlon and an expression of utter boredom. Your Kor ,T7eS yU that thelr behavior be-havior is due to the keen dlsan- KngT,Vhey --'enced Tn nnd'ng that you were not a fish When the new wing of the bird-house bird-house at the W. JUn far T f t 13 t0 hold large giassed incIosi w Intarcr "re to "ciVe Antarctic atmosphere, in which It sole v;,nn .etflTr,r,u rorhniis wherebv Vi 5 dVise R lm,,1"s After deciding In his own mind on the lady he would wed, he must not only win her favor but also vanquish whatever rivals may pr sen themselves. In achieving tht first of these designs, he takes a small stone in his beak and lays it bubbly at the iady's feet. This gift Is accompanied by a soulful g-e from his white-rtmmed and an unmelodious "quaark" f7om the bottom of his heart. Very likely he will have to peat this Performance a nm. i of times before hJ "umber brent,-: m , e Sl'cceeds In breakmg through her bashful fern 2S Js- t sumes his grander f ' he ns" vjtes furt,fernSpePe S'"e 7 J"" pleases her tho i If h "PProval, he adds hi" SQ,Wwk8 to make it a du't lnr,C!U e,To,-ts nd stretch and ...ze ,, 0111 8wn In an ecstacv of f ''eavenw,, -Sood Wers, treZ,r |