Well I
never saw a penguin dig a long deep hole before, that is, before I went to
Magdalena Island, off the coast of Chile, and a mighty remarkable hole to boot,
it was; it is how the male makes his home, while the female watches. I had
learned by watching: now and then he stops, and his mate, she looks, examines
the hole, taking perhaps half a minute, then he says, something like “Well, do
you or do you not approve,” something of that nature, hence, awaiting for the
approval and some appreciation, and then not getting any, starts digging again.
So here he is, he’s started to dig the
hole out some more, and he keeps this up, if it takes an hour or two, until his
mate is satisfied. You`ve never seen a creature dive into his work like this
penguin, perhaps like all penguins, like a robot turned on full blast, so since
I was born. And the way he hooved dirt every-which-way, perhaps one of the most
exciting and astonishing sights I ever come into contact with, concerning
animal behavior. He seldom stopped, if ever, to look at me looking at him, and
when he did stop it was for his mate to glorify him—and when she didn’t he began
thereafter just tossing the dirt out alongside, the hole’s sides, like a
bird flopping his wings, and I was so
tuckered out just watching him.
Finally, he comes a drooping out of the
hole, head down, like he’s got a broken spine, sweating if ever penguins sweat,
so it looked—in any case, his black and white tux was shining, with drops of
sweat, dripping off him, like little chucks of hail. So now he bends upward, for a look of
satisfaction on his mate’s face. If you’ll believe me, when his eyes met hers,
droopy, pale and tired, I said: it looks deep enough and wide enough for them
both to me, to keep the family snug like a bug, and then I was looking for a
sign of satisfaction on his mate’s face, but it looked like she had a belly
full of acorns, a flat effect on her face, and then she nodded, “O.K!” As he seemingly had just enough strength to
crawl back down into the hole, and lean his back against one side, awaiting his
bride, and you could see in a second or two, kind impressions emerge on her face,
an abrupt change, and this I believe freed his mind.
No: 1027 (2-8-2014)
