I would be remiss if I failed to mention that there are a number of books out there that explain the biology of penguins much better than I ever could. Additionally, these books contain many of the images you see in the penguin pages.

I consider this to be the bible for penguin lovers. It's certainly the most comprehensive of books I've encountered. This book is a compilation of studies and articles submitted by researchers and ethologists who have studied penguins over the years and is interspersed with comments from Stonehouse himself. It covers a wide variety of penguin topics such as phylogeny, ecology, behaviour and relationships with man. Reading this book is a must. Published by University Park Press in Baltimore.

This book is fantastic! Cowritten by Art Wolfe and William Ashworth, this book contains hundreds of photographs of our favorite little buggers. In addition to the penguins, you can find pictures of members of the Auk family, which you know, of course, are not related to penguins. But, they're nice birds too! This is the best picture book I've seen to date.

This book published by Yale Univeristy is yet another excellent source for information on penguins. Simpson presents the information in a more entertaining manner than does Stonehouse, but the impact of the information is in no way diminished. Simpson covers the same grounds as does Stonehouse, though to a much lesser extent. To his credit, Simpson does give adequate attention to all the members of Sphenisciformes. Plates include a variety of color pictures and maps.

This book deserves a place in every home. The language is clear and easy enough for non-academics to understand and appreciate. Unfortunately, this prevents the book from delving into the deeper realms of penguin biology and behaviour. Peterson includes many excellent color photographs of penguins and their predators. I highly recommend this book for those with casual interest in penguins. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.

This book contains several articles regarding the Great Albatross (not reviewed) and a fairly complex study of Adelie behaviour, circadian rhythms, biochemistry and feeding behaviour. The articles are typical of journal entries and contain a wealth of data, tables and charts to support the information.

This book was hard to obtain; the university had to dig in the storage for it. The book was first published by Clarendon Press in 1957 and it covers extensively Yellow-eyed penguins. The study is clear and straight forward, but I have not finished it as of date.

This is Richdale's clear cut and authoritative publication on the Yellow-eyed penguin with some minor inclusions on crested penguins. There is one problem with the book and that is that some of the terms will be confused with modern day terms for penguin behaviour. I hate terminology myself, but a thorough reading of this book is necessary after you've already ingested other terminology.

Here is a list of other books which I have not had time to read:

Author Simpson declares this work to be "an interesting, readable personal account of a summer spent studying penguins in the Falkland Islands.

Penguin Island   by C. Hearton

Island of the Penguins   by C. Kearton

Oceanic Birds of South America   by R.C. Murphy.

Penguin Biology   by Davis, L.S. and Darby, J.T. Eds.

Other books at Amazon.com

There are most definitely plenty of other penguin books available on the market today or in the archives of some library. Most authoritative accounts, however, seem to have been taken before 1960. Since then, despite the fact that penguins have become relatively accessible items for study, several species remain mysteries to scientists.

If you have read any of these unmentioned (or mentioned) books, feel free to add to the list by sending me some mail. Use the "comments" link below.