THE LONELY SOUTH.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 201, 4 May 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE LONELY SOUTH.

STORIES OK ANIMAL LIKE. In a lecture delivered in Sydney recently, Mr. 11. <L Pouting, a nieiiilier of Captain Scott's expedition. gave some interesting stories of the Antarctic, lie spoke first of penguins. A I'KNCUIN PARLIAMENT. .Mr. I'onting saw enough to convince him that the penguins had a method of government- a form of administration —peculiarly their own. They got together regularly in solemn confab, and some grouped themselves on rocks, constituting a sort of Tppcr House. Most of the penguins lie saw were the Adclie species. The Emperor penguins were slow and dignified in their movements; the Adclie was very active and could get over the iee as fast as a man, not by running so much as by slithering along. When a penguin took to the water, he parcelled himself up in a neat diving attitude, and made as pretty a sweep or gyration through the surf as could be imagined. In getting out of the water he made towards a sloping surface of rock, and bounded upwards like a cat. from the top of the wave, landing always on his feet. At Capo Royds they found only a small colony of them, but at Cape Adair, where Lieutenant Campbell's party landed, there were millions, and were so thick in places that one could hardly avoid treading on them. They turned up at 11k; end of October for the breeding season, which lasted till about February. Then they went into the moult, which, coming after the breeding, left them thin and emaciated. When they got their new plumage, and the seas were beginning to freeze up, they went to a new residence, hut just where that was remained, as far as he was aware, one of the mysteries of the great lone land. They were navigators of no mean degree, and found their way back in the summer time to their old colonies. Tt had been said that if one took a penguin to the utmost ends of the earth and then liberated him. he would make good his wayback to his old quarters, but Mr. Ponting said he couldn't vouch for the accuracy of this, though it was a common belief. QUAINT COURTSHIP. The penguins have a very quaint way of courting. In the season, when their fancy lightly turns to thoughts of Jove, the males strut about in all the finery of their plumage. AVhen one conies across a female that takes his eye. he goes up to her and strokes her gently down the back with his beak. Often the maiden is shy. and turns her head away, and pretends to take no notice. Then the male walks solemnly off, brings a stone in his beak, and lays it at her feet. Stones are the legal ten* der in Penguin Land. The penguins make their nests of stones, and the action of the male is a sort of gentle hint that "Barkis is willin'" that she sho«ld share his nest. If she makes no acknowledgment of the first stone, he brings another, and atill another, till there is a regular mound at the female's feet, and she breaks down, and is captivated under the weight of all these attentions, and off they go on their honeymoon, looking very happy, amid a crackling chorus from the interested feathered spectators of the little love affair. VORACIOUS KILLER WHALES. The voraciousness of the killer whales is well known. They are called the tigers of the sea. He saw one fight—a very unequal battle—between a seal and these demons of the deep, which he describes as the most stirring incident as showing the strong maternal love in animals for their offspring that ho has ever seen or heard of in his life. This is Mr. Ponting's story: "The killer is an animal which attacks with most cruel and extraordinary pertinacity. 4 shark is a pet in comparison. They hunt the seals as they lay asleep on the edge of the ice. Tt they can't reach them from the water they make a concerted attack from underneath. Half a dozen of them will get under the ice and endeavor to heave it up and smash it, and tumble the seal into the water. If they succeed in doing this, the seal is ravenously torn to pieces. But it is a very sleepy seal that gets caught like this. Sometimes, however, the shock to his nervous system is so great that he seems to get paralysed with fear, and before he can scuttle away is grabbed by the killers. "Once I saw eight killer whales chasing a seal, and saw the latter jump out of the sea on to the ice, and, instead of bolting away for dear life, as the seal usually does, it turned and faced its enemies. We were at a loss to understand why it should remain on the brink of the ice at the jaws of death, till presently we noticed that there was a young seal in the water, and in the hour of danger the mother would lu't desert it. Just as the killers got within a few yards of the calf, the old seal leaped into the water over their heads to draw them away. They whirled round to follow her, but she managed to elude them, and to get in front of them once more, und make another effort to get the young seal to a place of safety. This went on time and again till the killers finally reached her, their jaws snapping and tearing at her sides till the sea was red with blood. The dogged way that she fought, this exhibition of hopeless courage, won our admiration and sympathy, and was a line exemplication of the strong love in animals for their young. "On another occasion a school of killers was attracted by the dogs, which were near the edge of the ice. The beasts had their heads right above the water to see over the edge of the iee, and I got my camera and went as close as I could to them. The killers had made up their minds to get to the dogs at all hazards, and finding that they could not reach them where they were, and commenced to bump the ice up from below. The surface heaved up and down and then broke, and I and my camera, were cut adrift on a. loose section, ft was an awkward position, hut F made a bolt for the firm ice and got there, and the dogs, which were also in danger, were then rescued. A large quantity of the iee was broken up, so much so that the ship had to be removed from the edge. SEAL LIFE. "The seal life is of tremendous interest. I trot- some most remarkable pictures of the seals boring holes in the ice with their teeth by means of a sawing motion. 1 also got a lot of pictures . showing the mother seals gambolling with their young, just as cats play with kittens, and of teaching the young idea how to swim. When a seal is about a fortnight old it is taken by the mother to the water's she then jumps in and swinis almut to show how it is done, and endeavors to coax the little ones to follow suit, After a lot of persuasion the young seal lakes a header and comes up with a most, startled expression on its face, and when it reaches terra fir ma- again it wants to run awav home. But the lesson has to be learnt, and so the young seal is mad* to go into the water again, and it is not long before he becomes an expert swimmer and shows a preference for the water. However, he is then taught to be a useful member of the community, and is set to work in gangs making holes in