The Finperar Penguin,

Otago Witness, Issue 2665, 12 April 1905, Page 76

The Finperar Penguin,

Mr Edward A. Wilson, assistant surgoon of the Discovery, in an addre*« at the Royal Institution on the "Life History of the Emperor P&iTguin " gavo an interesting account of some of that bird-; peculiarity. He sa*d that befoi-e the National Antarctic expedition nothing was known of its life history, except that it did not leave tho ice ; and the only one of its eggs that had been seen had a somewhat shaky hi.-tory. Though it had now lost its wings, there were reasons to believe that at one period it was able to fly; thus it still retained the habit of tucking its head under its wing when asloep, although that wing was abotit as comforting- as th-e lid of a cigar box. Still, this habit showed signs of losing its force, for sometimes a penguin Mas to be seen asleep with its head drawn down on its neck — a more suitable attitude from the point of view of protection from the cold. The egg or chick was carried about and kept off the ice by being supported on the foot of the parent, but, the lecturer objected to ttie us© of the word pouch in this connection : a fold or lappet of heavily feathered skin did fall from the parent's abdomen over the chiok, which might sometimes be quite concealed, but the word pouch was not an accurate description of thj arrangement. At the penguin rookery which ho visited at Cape Crozier he reckoned that the mortality of the chicks was about 77 per cent. Of these that died, he should suppose that no less than half wore killed by kindness. Adult panguins had an overpowering desire to pit on something, and as they were largely in excess of the chicks, whenever a chick appeared there was a wild rush for the privilege of nursing it, and in tJhe struggle it often came to harm.

It was interesting to see how these bp'-ds mads use of the processes of Nature. When they knew that the ice was breaking, while their down ohicks were still tco youngi to take to the water, they would go to the edge of the sea and deliberately wait until a piece of the floe broke off and floated 1 them off to the pack which formed the nursery and training ground for their young. The young penguin, born in the coldest month of the Antarctic winter, shed its down when five months old, and a year later had a second moult, after which' the adult bird appeared in all its glory. The lecture was illustrated with a number of photographs allowing emperor penguins singly and in groups, their rookery at Cape Crozier, and their development from the egg to full gtowth.