156 A NATURALIST ON THE "CHALLENGER." 



water washing over the rocks ; but the birds evidently have a 

 sort of magpie-like delight in curiosities : Spheniscus magdla- 

 nicus at the Falkland Islands, similarly collects variously coloured 

 pebbles at the mouth of its burrow. Two pairs of the birds had 

 built inside the ruins of the hut. 



All the birds fought furiously, and were very hard to kill. 

 They make a noise very like the braying of donkeys, hence their 

 name ; they do not hop, but run or waddle. They do not leap 

 out of the water like the crested penguins when swimming, but 

 merely come to the surface and sit there like clucks for a while, 

 and dive again. We dragged off a number in the boat for 

 stuffing, and took young and eggs ; the old ones fought hard 

 in the boat and tried to bite one another's eyes out. 



There was a large flock of terns on the rock, rendering it 

 quite white on one part, but they were not nesting. There were 

 plenty of shags' nests, some few with young ones, but most of 

 them were already relinquished : they were built on a higher 

 standing-piece of the rock, and were large round deep nests made 

 of dried seaweed. 



There is a great fishery at the Cape of a fish called " Snook," a 

 sort of Barracuda, which is salted and dried, and sent mainly to 

 Mauritius for sale. The Snook boats were always to be seen 

 about in the bay. The fish are caught with a hook and line, 

 whilst the boat is in motion. The fishermen are especially 

 careful not to get bitten by the fish as they haul them in ; wounds 

 caused by the bite of the fish are said to fester in a violent 

 manner as if specially poisoned. 



The fish, however, which is most interesting from a scientific 

 point of view, which is caught at the Cape, is a large Myxinoid 

 (Bddlostoma) allied to the lamprey. Two or three, of these were 

 cauo-ht with a hand line and fish bait from our ship whilst 

 at anchor at Simons Bay, and they are not at all uncommon, 

 though so very rare in European museums. The specimens 

 cauo-ht were nearly three feet in length. They swallowed the 

 bait far down, and astonished the sailors by the immense 

 quantity of gelatinous slime which they discharged from the 

 surfaces of their bodies when drawn on board. The slime forms 

 masses of a jelly-like substance. 





