MOULTING PENGUINS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2358, 4 May 1899, Page 59

MOULTING PENGUINS.

By RicirvßD Hexry, Resolution' lsland

After the young ones are grown up and gone away, some of the old penguins remain fo-r their moulting through January and February ; but they are not particular about the date to a month or so. During this time they seem to be in misery and out of humour, as if moulting was a very disagreeable business. Only about 10 per cent, of them remain, which implies that they only moult every eight or ten years. They generally stay in the bush in dens under the roots of trees, where the young were reared. On of them often comes down to the water's edge ; but instead of holding up its head, proud of a pretty yellow crest and snow-white satin breast, it looks down at its pinfeather coat in a dejected sort of' way as much as to say, " Here is a pretty state of affairs; cannot go into the water, and have had no dinner for a fortnight."

It is no wonder that they are cross, as their voices plainly indicate, no matter ■what the words may be. It is something like the voice of guinea fowl, but a very different tune, with a lot of snarl and complaint in it; and sometimes I think that there is a distinct call in it, as if they said, " Come on, come on ; lam starving for that fish." While the one shouting out in the water seems to- say, "Where are you?" Bab I notice it never gets an answer except by accident; as if it was always the wrong one -that was within hearing. This made me think that their mates fed the moultersas they do the hatchers ; but I can never catch one at it, they are so sly. Though they sit outside most of their time, they hop into their dens when they hear you coming through the scrub, and I have watched one of those callers for hours, ancl nobody ever came near it; and by other indications at the den I think" they -get no food until their new feathers arc weU set. The shout of the one out in the water is just as if he had hurt himself. It is something between a scream and a roar, and when another one or two say the same thing, in slightly different voices, the concert is not at all unlike the hee-haw of a donkey. In fact, there is a variety that the sailors call the jackass penguin, because it reminds them of a donkey singing. That is" a great come down for a bird as a singer.

They are more like ghouls than biids, for though there are plenty of nice dry dens for them to occupy, they seem to pick out tho sloppiest they "can find, and there they sit about in the mud as if they were very comfortable ; but I suppose their dense coats make them indifferent about wet — they may not understand it at all as I do. At breeding time, if theii rookery is to windward, you do not heed a dog to scent it- out in the bush, for you can do it yourself quite easily. It is always near fresh water, of which they must drink large quantities, because I often see them drinking ; and I suppose' that, wheu they are using up their great coats of fat all they want is water. 1 was going into a cave one day for eggs, and there was a fellow at the door catching a little spout of falling water from the cliff. Hu had his gieat mouth spread out under it as if he was afraid of wasting a drop, and he stayed so long at it that I had not patience to wait for him to finish his drink. Yon would never think lie lrid such a mouth unless you saw him showing it off in Unit way. Probably lie had just come ashore, and was making up for lost time when be could net get it as sea, though he ought to have been able to catch some that way from a passing shower. It is just possible that each rookery is a separate hapu of its own, because -there i« one near Luncheon Cove where (hey are all of a slightly different plumage, so that they must be very exclusive, because there are .several rookeries of the ordinary kind withhi half a mile of them. There is another iv ".South Cave," at Pigeon Island, that comes about a fortnight earlier than any of the others that I know of, so that they look like an old established separate community; and we need not wonder, for hw\' often exists even among men. I have not seen them fighting often, but when they do, it is something awful for severity and endurance, for there will be a yard of foam around them for fully half an hour, and blood running so freely that I can see it red on their feathers though washed off every moment with the splashing; so that it is a very serious business. They should take a lesson from the Maori hens, and fight oftener, have more fun, and do less damage. As they only use their legs for steering, they keep their breasts very low when on tin' surface, to have their fin-like wings under water, and then they are the mr»>t un-graceful-looking birds that swim— something like a Muskovy duck getting drowned. But it would be hard to drown a penguin, for I took one down one day and threw it in the sea, and though it \vas quite calm I never saw it again. I might as well have thrown in a stone. It must have gone round the point or out of sight before it came up ; and when I let one go in shallow water, it darts about in a zigzag course— the best for defeating some swift enemy — till it gets into deep water.

The native ground lark, with its zigzag flight, does not care a straw for the sparrow hawk, that can shoot like an arrow, though when he catches a bush bird out in the open it is almost certain death for it. I only saw him try a lark once, and then he was so badly beaten that while he was having a rest the lark actually chirruped a song in his face, and he said nothing, but flew away to the bush, and I suppose it is the same in the sea.

The covering of the penguin's fin demonstrates the transition from true scales at one end to feathers at the other; and the creature itself demonstrates the transition from a sort of a fish to a ssrt of a bird, while its jumping ideas suggest another transition, which I should not like to mention ; but I heard that there is one sort of penguin that has already started a pouch for hatching its egg, so that there is no knowing what it might mean with time and opportunity! Though they can run a little with one leg after fcfie other, they, lose their

balance that way. and, like true Australasians, seem to got oji best with the kangaioo's ideas-. Supposing the world changed }• s balance ,i lit Me. as it has often done before, and 'eft the penguins' fertilised islands unduT i. tropical sun, fruit might become more p ">riiul than fish, and that would be then opportunity to learn to jump about the count,;- after bananas. Then to prevent them getting lazy like the dodos, some of the seals mighc find fish so scarce that they would not be above going ashore and playing wolf after penguins, to make them step out a little and clear off the bad jumpers. After that they Avould be a benefit to each other, because the lazy penguins would get eaten.' and the lazy seals would starve, while the smart ones would escape and survive. And thus they could go on getting swifter and swifter each generation, till they would become as smart as dingos and kangaroos.

A sudden change of balance in the world would account for the great quantity of bones now about the Arctic islands, and for tho frozen mammoth whose skin we saved. It would also account foi the pei-iodic extinction of old-world forms by which we classify our geologies ; and then a slow return would .account for all sorts of changes in plants and animals.

It is quite probable thai hunger drives many animals to change iheL food ; for I heard that cows eat fish heads in the Orkney Islands ; and 1 know that a dog will live well on bread and biscuits, though he is a typical flesh-eater. I should not wonder if hawks first arose through the ablest and boldest among starving parrots eating theiv weaker fellows, for we have an instance in transit now in the case of the kea. In like manner as the fruit islands gradually became cooler, they would only produce grasses in abundance, and the old fruiteaters would be compelled to change or .disappear; and if the change came ;;.s slowly as it has in our historical period, Ilia simple law of variation and survival would be ample to produce all sorts of changes in animals. Foi instance, if the gorilla's country gradually got cooler and there were no men, those that learned to make the best nests and keep themselves warm would have (he best chance to rear children and survive : and as the climato got coole*- still, in another 100,000 years those that learned to put away a store of food for winter would also have the best chances. And once h<> learned to store foed, he would have time t) think and improve his mind for another lon,<i period. I saw the or&ng-outang in the Melbourne Royal Park in 1384 putting away a store of food fox itself. It would also cover itself with an i>!d sugar mat every time it came down out of its tree, until ie got another biscuit, which it would smell and taste, and if satisfactory climb up and put away in >i bo.< that was there for that purpose. The keeper told me that it would only eat at intervals, just like a Christian., so I don't see where the link is missing. All that the crang wanted vas ro be gradually starved out of its trees by the failure of the fruit, and be compelled to live' on roots and seeds, and then be slowly adapted for walking on tlie ground like man. No animal alters by choice, rot even the men with ail. their sense and inducements ; but all are forced to alter by changing circumstances, and there is force enough in a slowly changing climate to a'c-c-oi'nt for alterations in plan(s and animils until thay become perfectly fitted foi their j/ai-es, according to the lav.-.

Time wa3 evidently never taken into account in drawing the plans for things in this world, and in reality it may only exist with its stiU'fc and finish in our limited imaginations. But we have it written plainly in the stones and in the bones that when word came down, one of the orders given was "Change to improve or die." We know also that there were many resident here that disappeared, probably because they disobeyed. >So I wonder what we are doing? (.{siting ready for another flood, 3 think, becau.se nothing el&e would be &o effective against the amount of fiery-fighting material we have now on hand, except a sufficiently low temperature. We have the best of evident that the climate of Greenland was once down ps far as Italy, and why not again, when we know that great cycles are the order of the universe?