Robin Collins, age 12, of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, for his question:

Why can't penguins fly?

The penguin's flappy little flippers are too weak to lift his bulky body off the ground. His modified wings are covered with short. scale like feathers and they do not have the stiff quills that a flying bird needs to lift his body aloft. If the ancestors of the penguin ever had stiff, pinioned wings capable of flight, they would have needed super wings indeed to be of any use. Most of the penguins live on ocean isles and bleak shores tossed by tear¬ing winds and bitter blizzards. Flying under these conditions, especially near the wild waves of the sea, would be a very hazardous exercise.

However, the penguin is able to use the motions of flight with great success. He is a great diver and plunger and he uses his stubby wings to swim underwater. Down here he is as agile as any flying bird on the wing. He swim flies as fast as an arrow, swerving and swooping like a joyful acrobat.