"Now, just look yonder!" said Peterkin in an excited tone; "if that
isn't the most abominable piece of maternal deception I ever saw! That
rascally old lady penguin has just pitched her young one into the sea,
and there's another about to follow her example."
This indeed seemed to be the case, for on the top of a steep rock close
to the edge of the sea we observed an old penguin endeavouring to
entice her young one into the water; but the young one seemed very
unwilling to go, and, notwithstanding the enticements of its mother,
moved very slowly towards her. At last she went gently behind the young
bird and pushed it a little towards the water, but with great
tenderness, as much as to say, "Don't be afraid, darling; I won't hurt
you, my pet!" but no sooner did she get it to the edge of the rock,
where it stood looking pensively down at the sea, than she gave it a
sudden and violent push, sending it headlong down the slope into the
water, where its mother left it to scramble ashore as it best could. We
observed many of them employed in doing this, and we came to the
conclusion that this is the way in which old penguins teach their
children to swim.
Scarcely had we finished making our remarks on this, when we were
startled by about a dozen of the old birds hopping in the most clumsy
and ludicrous manner towards the sea. The beach here was a sloping
rock, and when they came to it some of them succeeded in hopping down
in safety, but others lost their balance, and rolled and scrambled down
the slope in the most helpless manner.
Pages:
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180