PENGUINS 
In keeping with their sober costumes, penguins observe a proper decorum 
in their relations, whether they meet casually or in a mood for courtship. 
In the latter case, the male Adelie penguin will take a pebble in his mouth 
and lay it before his beloved as an indication of his serious intentions. 
In October the male scrapes a hollow in the soil of the rookery or 
nesting ground and collects stones, one by one, to form a circle around 
the nest. Stones are few in the Antarctic, and the penguin is not averse 
to stealing one occasionally in the absence of his neighbor. When the re¬ 
turning home-maker discovers his loss, there is a great to-do. The whole 
rookery sets up a squawk as the two contestants engage in battle. 
Penguins lay their eggs in the coldest and most desolate regions, 
usually far from the water. The incubation period lasts for seven weeks. 
To keep the eggs from freezing, king penguins carry them between belly 
and feet, male and female sharing this task. 
Thievish and quarrelsome despite their manners, penguins frequently 
steal one another’s food, stones and even eggs. In the resulting fights they 
inflict savage wounds with their pointed beaks. Unmated males, or “hooli¬ 
gans,” band together in raiding parties and rob the nests of their settled 
neighbors, menacing the entire community until they are driven off. 
Death comes to the penguins from the sea and air in the persons of 
the skua gull, the leopard seal, and the killer whale who eat their fill of 
the defenseless birds. Penguins have no fear of human hunters, often send¬ 
ing delegations forward to inspect the visitors. 
Penguins in captivity show many other human characteristics aside 
from their white shirt fronts. A pair grew so attached to one another that 
when one died, the other pined away and refused all nourishment. By 
way of consolation for the bereaved bird, a mirror was introduced into 
its lodging. Looking into the mirror, the penguin thought its mate had 
been restored to life, but seemed puzzled by the “other bird’s” imitative 
habits. 
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