Page:Polar Exploration - Bruce - 1911.djvu/142

138 and other lands that are situated well within the ice limit. It is the handsomest and largest of all penguins, an adult, when in good condition, weighing about eighty pounds.

D'Urville was the first to discover and bring back to Paris the egg of the Emperor Penguin, but nothing was known about the breeding habits of this remarkable bird until Dr. Wilson and the naturalists of the Discovery brought back the first description. The bird builds no nest, but sits on the ice and lays a single egg, which it places on the top of its feet and covers by a flap of skin and feathers. The egg being laid before the winter is over and hatched before the advent of spring, there is heavy mortality among the chicks. The chick is nestled on the feet of the parent bird, and kept warm like the egg by the flap of skin and feathers, which surrounds it almost like a marsupial pouch. In spite of the care thus taken of the chicks, many die from exposure, and each bird if it has not a chick of its own is anxious to secure one from its neighbour. The early breeding of the Emperor Penguin has possibly arisen from the necessity of giving sufficient time by the end of the summer for the young bird to develop to such a stage of maturity that it can by that time fend for itself.

Other penguins are all very much smaller than the Emperor, weighing about 8 to 14 lbs.,