Evening star., 1952-05-26
Penguin Egg Classic
Proves More Amuzino
New Study Reveals Mole
Hos VituI incubution Role
By Thomos R. Henry

First observations in more than half
century Of one of natures miracles
the egg-laying and Matching of the
emperor penguin in the darkness Of the
Antarctic night at temperatures Of from
80 to 30 below zero-have just been
reported.
DR.. Edward Wilson. surgeon Of Sir
Robert Falcon Scott's first South Polar
expedition. found the first emperor PEN
gum rookery at Cape Crozier on the
Antarctic continent in 1901 and was able
to observe 1t for few days. His account
became one Of the classics of science.
The big birds Matched their eggs, he
found. standing on one foot on the
Ice and holding the egg with the other
foot against the breast feathers. He
assumed that the task was shared by
both males and females. The male would
take the egg from the female while she
journeyed to the open water-a belt Of
which nearly surrounds the continent
to feed on flsh. After few days, Wilson
supposed. she would return while the
male went after fish.
More Of Miracle.
Last year. according to the report in
Association for the Advancement of
Science, by DR.. Bernard Stonehouse of
the Falkland Island Dependencies Ad-
ministration, another emperor penguin
rookery was found and observations were
continued at intervals for 10 weeks. The
process is even more Of a miracle than
DR.. Wilson supposed. DR.. Stonehouse
says:
First. he found the females lay their
eggs on the ice. Then they leave imme-
diately for open water and remain there
for the full period of incubation, 80 days.
Presumably they feed constantly during
this period. The males take over entirely
at the nursery. Throughout the entire
two months the husband remains stand
Ing on one foot and holding the egg
against his breast with the other-pre-
Sumably shifting feet now and then.
Through the entire incubation period
ne eats nothing. When the eggs are
about to hatch the mothers return from
the sea. tidy up the nursery. and get
ready to take over rearing the chicks.
Then the males who have exhausted
their reserves of fat stagger feebly in
their own mass migration to the open
Still the only criterion. by the way,
between male and female emperor
penguins is that the females lay eggs.
Nobody ever. has been able to distinguish
them otherwise. BY the time of the
Antarctic sunrise the chicks are about
ready to fend for themselves.
Thus the emperor penguin, which
stands from three to four feet high and
looks and acts deceptively like human
being. stands out still more as one of
the most remarkable birds in existence.
1t is confined to the Ross Sea side of the
Antartic continent, where 1t Is by far
the most conspicuous element of the
fauna. Its family life hitherto has been
known only from the necessarily some
what superficial observations of DIR.
Wilson, who perished with Scott on the
return journey from the South Pole,
and his account sometimes has been
questioned by ornithologists. DR.. Stone
house abundantly confirms it.
Four Rookeries Known.
Up to now. DR.. Stonehouse says, four
emperor rookeries, to which the birds
return winter after winter, are known.
Cape Crozier. however. is the only one
of which the location has been revealed.
The big bird, which actually is about
two-thirds feathers, remains complete
evolutionary enigma. Theories have
been advanced that it is the last sur
viving member of the fauna of the
Antarctic continent about $4,000, 900
years ago when the shorelines were free
of ice. It is certainly off any known
road of evolution.
DR.. Stonehouse locates his rookery
somewhere in the Falkland Islands
Dependencies territory which would
place it quite far outside the Ross Sea
area.
The dependencies government, which
operates under the British Colonial
Office, sends out an exploring expedition
each year. These expeditions now have
been resumed after the interruption of
the war. They have made Antarctic
waters about the best-known area in
the world from the standpoint of natural
history.