158.WHERE DO PENGUINES LIVE?
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.
157.WHERE ARE EELS BORN?
One of the most curious of all living creatures is the long, slippery, whiplike member of the fish family called the eel.
If it were possible to identify one of the species and follow it in its travels, it would be found at different times swimming across hundreds of miles of ocean, ascending rivers, and even wriggling through wet grass on land toward the place where its instinct tells it there is a pond rich in food.
156.WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF THE GOLD FISH?
The ancestor of the goldfish is the carp. In the lakes and rivers of China and Japan, the greenish-gray carp is found in great quantities, and this is where the goldfish was first developed.
The Chinese have been breeding goldfish for centuries, and the Japanese have raised goldfish for more than 400 years! Goldfish weren’t known to Europe until a few were brought over about 200 years ago. These were given to Madame Pornpadour of the court of King Louis XV of France. Because she was the leader of fashion, other people began importing them.
