Contrast in Manners.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 939, 8 December 1933, Page 6

Contrast in Manners.

Nature Notes.

By James Drummond, F.L.S., F.Z.S.

r JP HE EMPEROR, which lives on the Ant. arctic Continent, is the biggest living penguin. It is tall, stately, dignified, haughty, solitary and exclusive.

There is a world of difference between this possessor of a proud title and the only other species of penguin that lives exclusively in tho Snow Queen's realms, the

Adelie, a little, pert, passionate wight, bursting with its own importance, devoid of dignity, full of inordinate curiosity. This species was named Adelie in honour of the wife of Admiral Dumont D’Urville, commander of a French Antarctic Expedition. The gallant French explorers honoured that lady further when they landed on a part of the Antarctic Continent and named it Adelie Land.

Early in the Tertiary Era there lived on the shores of ancient New Zealand a species ol gigantic penguin, about three times as large as the average penguin of these days. Fossil bones of a member of the species were preserved in limestone at Kakanui, near Oamaru. With it there were seashells that differ from sea-shells in New Zealand waters at present: but the Early Tertiary penguin was specialised in almost the same degree as a modern penguin, except in size.

Modern penguins cannot fly. The gigantic species lived millions of years ago, but it was as absolutely flightless as any living penguin. The conclusion is that modern penguins have descended from primitive birds that never flew. They are not degenerate descendants of flying birds.