CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. 155 



it was quite tame and rested quietly on a bunch of twigs, hung 

 up to the lamp rail, and would whip flies out of one's fingers 

 from a distance of at least four inches with its tongue. It gave 

 birth to three young ones one night: they twisted their tails 

 round the twigs on which the mother was reposing at once, and 

 at once began catching flies ; but our house-flies were too big for 

 their mouths to swallow, and they had to chew away at them 

 for a long time before they could get any juice out of them. 



About the sea-shore at Simons Bay, are quantities of cor- 

 morants, or shags, as they are called (Phalacrocorax capensis) ; 

 they sit in groups on all the rocks about the town, and bask in 

 the sun, and at times appear in vast flights darkening the air. 

 Gannets (Sula capensis) are constantly in sight, and gulls {Lams 

 dominicanus) ever flying over the water. 



I paid a visit to an island in False Bay, called Seal Island. 

 It is a mere shelving rock on which it is only possible to land 

 on very favourable occasions. The whole place is a rookery 

 of the Jackass penguin (Spheniscus demersa). It is an ugly 

 bird as compared with the crested penguin of Tristan da 

 Cunha ; the bill is blunter, but the birds can nevertheless bite 

 hard with it : [all the penguins seem to bite rather than peck]. 

 The birds here nested on the open rock, which was fully ex- 

 posed to the burning sun and occasional rain. It must not be 

 supposed that either penguins or albatrosses are necessarily 

 inhabitants of cold climates, a species of penguin and an 

 albatross breed at the Galapagos Archipelago, almost exactly 

 on the equator. 



There was not a blade of grass on the rock, but it was covered 

 with guano, with little pools of filthy green water. The birds 

 nested under big stones, wherever there was place for them ; most 

 of the nests were, however, quite in the open. The nests were 

 formed of small stones and shells of a Balanus, of which there 

 were heaps washed up by the surf, and of old bits of wood, nails, 

 and bits of rope, picked up about the ruins of a hut which were 

 rotting on the island, together with an old sail, some boat's spars, 

 and bags of guano, evidently left behind by guano-seekers. The 

 object of thus making the nest is no doubt to some extent to 

 secure drainage in case of rain, and to keep the eggs out of 



