Another penguin summer

Olin Sewall Pettingill, Jr., (1907 -2001), was a famous American ornithologist, author and filmmaker, the Director of Cornell University's Laboratory of Ornithology for many years, President of the Wilson Ornithological Society from 1948 to 1950, a member of the Board of Directors of the National Audubon Society from 1955 to 1974, and a Life Fellow of the American Ornithologists' Union. In the early 70's, Walt Disney sent Pettingill to the Falkland Islands to photograph the activities of the penguins there. He subsequently returned for "another penguin summer". This book is the result of that trip. The Falkland Islands, located to the east of the southern tip of Argentina, offered splendid opportunities for the penguin fancier for, as opposed to Antarctica, they can be reached by commercial airline and you can live in a town and still be near different kinds of penguins. This delightful and informative book, provides a look at five penguin species - Gentoo, Rockhopper, King, Magellanic (or Jackass), and Macaroni. The author tells about the penguins' daily lives; their pairing and nest building; the birth of progress of their chicks; family problems; squabbles with neighbors; and at the same time points up their more humorous and more "human" characteristics - their nearsightedness, their awkwardness, their personality foibles. The author's introductory text, combined with his superb photographs, makes this a wonderful book for all wildlife enthusiasts. But the book is also a great deal more - it is a lighthearted look at perhaps the most charming and appealing of birds, and it is by inference an apt but painless look at ourselves.