THE FIRST FLUTTEEINGS OF THE WING. 



97 



genus, yet one not less remarkable as a maternal precaution. I refer 

 to a very rare gorfou — wliicli I have seen in no other museum — - 

 attired in the rough skin of a quadruped, resembling a goat's fleece, 

 but more shining, perhaps, in the living animal, and certainly imper- 

 meable to water. 



To link together the birds which do not fly, we must find the 

 connecting ' point in the navigator of the desert — the bird-camel, the 

 ostrich, resembling the camel itself in its internal structure. At least, 

 if its imperfect wings cannot raise it above the earth, they assist it 

 powerfully in walking, and endow it with extraordinary swiftness : 

 it is the sail with which it skims its arid African ocean. 



Let us return to the penguin, the true starting-point of the 

 series — to the penguin, whose rudimentary pinion camiot be employed 

 as a sail, does not aid it in walking, is only an indication, like a 

 memorial of nature. 



She loosens her bonds, she rises with difliculty in a first attempt 

 at flight by means of two strange figures, which appear to us both 

 grotesque and pretentious. The penguin is not of these ; a simple, 

 silly creature, you see that it never had the ambition to fly. But 

 here are they who emancipate themselves, who seem in quest of the 

 adornment or the grace of motion. The gorfou may be taken for a 



^-jialll 



penguin which has decided to quit its condition. It assumes a 

 coquettish tuft of plumes, that throws into high relief its ugliness. 



7 



