THE EMPEROR PENGUIN'S EGG.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXVII, Issue 222, 19 September 1903, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE EMPEROR PENGUIN'S EGG.

Considerable importance is attached in zoological circles to the finding by Lieutenant Royds, of the Antarctic ship, Discovery, and a nephew of the hon. and gallant member of the Rochdale division, of an egg of the emperor penguin, which, like that of the Antarctic penguin, has not, it is believed ever been previously discovered in the actual breeding haunts which are therefore now established beyond cjuestion.

The emperor penguin, which is the largest of the many varieties of this beautiful bird, stands as miKh as 3^ft. in height, and upon occasions has been known to turn the scale at 701b to 80lb., indeed, the extreme corpulence of this Antarctic resident renders locomotion at all times, a matter of no little difficulty. Accordingly when pursued, the bird adopts the strategical manoeuvre of lying', flat-down on the anbw and propelling itself with its feet, wlrieh it does with amazing rapidity.

Mr. Royds was also fortunate in securing the young birds, which will no doubt make their appearance in London in due course, it is not a fact that the emperor penguin car*si«6 its egg, which are of enormous Size, in a pouch after the fashion of a kangaroo, the actual fact being that by some mysterious process the egg is placed in a lower depression of feathers in the lower part of the silUjaach, and by a. slight pressure is kept in position while the bird