The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-06-19
SOME PECULIAR
 WAYS OF PENGUINS Big New Zealand Birds Are Often Made Pets of by
 Big People. FIGHTING FOR MATES Live in Colonies Laid Out in Regular Plots and
 Streets.
FIGHTING FOR MATES

often associate it with Australia, al
 though the two countries are 1,20C
 miles apart. Many species of pen
 guins nest in New Zealand, although
 oil hunters are doing all they can to
 wipe these birds off the face of the
 earth. There are few birds more re-
 markable in their habits or more lov-
 able. In their quaint, upright gait
 and in every motion they personify Ipitiful, although Imaginable, innocence,
 and in their trustfulness of man this
 characteristic Is sustained. The pen guin possesses much seriousness and
 self-satisfaction, Nothing ever ap-
 pears to frighten it or disturb it's plac-
 i'd equanlmity.
 One who lived long in New Zealand
 says that penguins make admirable
 pets. penguin which was taken
 from the rookery and confined for a
 few days in a yard became tame all
 most at once. In a short time 1t would
 follow its owner everywhere, toillng up
 and down hill to keep up with him, If
 he went upstairs the penguin came
 hopping up a step at time but when
 the funny fellow tried to go down he
 was at once in trouble. The tall feath-
 CTS of New Zealand penguins are long
 and stiff, and at each jump from one
 step to the next this appendage struck the edge and rolled the bird over Sev- eral times he tried this mode of de-
 scent, and then wisely gave 1t up. Bal ancing himself for a moment on the
 edge of the top step, the bird would fold
 its fippers close to Its sides, draw in its
 head and deliberately proceed to roll down, pumping from step to step like
 a football, and arriving in a heap at
 the bottom. Far from being hurt, it
 would instantly arise, shake itself viz
 orously like a dog, look around, find
 it's owner and trot off In his direction.
 This ability to endure rough tumb-
 ling and ugly falls stands the penguins 1 in good stead, and Is frequently brought into use in their wild life One colony of little blue penguins had | their rookery at a distance of half l mile from the sea, and in order to
 reach it they were compelled to follow a we'll worn trail which zlgzagged back and forth along a cliff and up steep hill beyond. If one watched this trail it would be noticed that it was
 used only by peguins going inland to-
 ward the rookery. The returning birds had discovered an easier method, namely, @ steep slide on the side of the cliff, down which they slipped, slid or rolled to the rocks beneath, making their way thence to the adjacent beach, and so on to the ocean, where
 most of their life Is spent. The fact that their bodies are incased in such a thick layer of fat or bubber proba- ply accounts for the lack of fatalities from this method of saying time.
 Many interesting things have been told of penguin rookery, and when such q place Is systematically observed and the habits and interrelations of the inmates studied, the result will l probably be one of the most fascinat- ing bits of bird history ever written. In the regularity of their streets and nests, the enforcing of an unwritten | code of rules for the good of all and | In their comically human posture and | gait, they remind one of some Gulli- | veresque country of Liliputians. If a | man walks through the rookery, or | city, as 1t deserves to be called, keep ing on the right side of the streets or trails between the nests, he will be unmolested and almost as unnotlced as If his toes were webbed and his | clothes of feathers, instead of cloth But let him cross to the left or wrong side and every penguin's beak will be turned against him. This rdleulously l anthropomorphic custom, or instinct, is doubtless of value in keeping the road clear for the host of penguins l leaving their nests or re- turning from the sea. They walk so slowly that if constantly stepping to get out of each others way they would lose much valuable time in get ting to their mates to relieve them of the care of the eggs, or in bringing fish to the hungry young.
 An instance of the peculiar habits of the penguins occurs at the end of the breeding season, when the birds with their full grown young start for 3 years life on the open Antarctic Sea. Some species nest in burrows which they excavate in the ground, but oth- ers nest on pebbly beaches or plains and gather a goodly pile of rounded stones on which to lay their eggs. Of )ourse, by the time the young are 'eady to leave the nest the nesting pile of pebbles is fattened and the adja- cent nests are confusedly intermingled. 1 One would expect that the birds, when eady to depart, would simply leave 1 he scene of confusion as it is. But lot so the orderly penguins. Before he parents turn their backs upon the tests for the last time that year they arefully pile up their nest materials nto a neat little cone of pebbles, bick- ring and quarrelling and disputing he while. Thus the pengulns leave ehind them scores or hundreds of tiny lies of stones and the succeeding year ach pair of penguins returns to it's articular pile. No one has absolute proved this to be a fact, although | !
 would be an easy matter by marking I nest and by tagging the owners with 1 { band of metal fastened about the leg. However, the dispatch with which | ests are selected and the comparative Ick of confusion upon the arrival of ne birds the succeeding year would eem to confirm the statement that 1 aeh year the penguins return to their l articular nests of the season before. It is probable that penguins pair for te, although nothing definite is 1OWn on tba erhiapf Vrl,o,, ,.ot. ] [