Many people imagine that this strange bird lives wherever it is cold, near the North Pole, South Pole, and so on. But the penguin inhabits only the Southern Hemisphere. Penguins live along the Antarctic (not Arctic!) continent and islands. They are found west Africa, NewZealand, and southern Australia.

The penguin is famous, of course, because it is like a comic version of a human being. Penguins stand up straight and flat-footed. Often they arrange themselves in regular files, like soldiers.

When they walk, their manner seems so dignified and formal that it looks funny to us. Their plumage covers their entire bodies and is made of small, scalelike feathers. It looks like a man’s evening dress of black coat and white shirt front.

The penguin that existed in prehistoric times was six feet tall, and you can imagine the effect that penguin would have on us today! There are 17 species of penguins in existence today, and the largest of these, the emperor penguin, stands just over 1 meter high and weighs about 36 kilograms.

Ages ago, the penguin could fly as well as any other bird. But today its wings are short flappers, of no value at all in flying. How did this happen? One of the reasons, strangely enough, is that the penguin had few, if any, enemies. It lived in such remote areas in the Antarctic regions, that there was practically no one around to attack it. So it could safely spend all its time on land or in the water.

As generations of penguins were born and died without ever using their wings, those wings in time became very small and stiff, until today they are useless for flying. But the penguins became wonderful swimmers and divers, and those wings make excellent paddles! Penguins also developed a thick coat of fat to protect them from the icy cold of the regions where they lived.

Penguins are hunted by men today for this fat, and it may be necessary to pass laws to protect them from extinction.