ALCID.E. 529 



maturity, is replaced by sliort stiff feathers ; these 

 must be perfectly developed before the bird ventures 

 upon the sea. 



The type of this sub-family is — 



The Patagonian or King Penguin {Aj)tenodytes 

 Penncmtii). These birds are very numerous m high 

 southern latitudes. Mr. G. Bennet has particularly 

 described a colony which covered an extent of thirty or 

 forty acres, at the north end of Macquarrie Island, in 

 the " South Pacihc Ocean : — " The number of Penguins 

 collected together in this spot is immense, it would be 

 almost impossible to guess at it with any near approach to 

 truth, as durmg the whole of the day and night thirty or 

 forty thousand of them are contmually landing, and an 

 equal number going to sea. They are arranged when on 

 shore in as compact a manner, and m as regular ranks, as 

 a regiment of soldiers, and are classed with the greatest 

 order, the young birds bemg in one situation, the 

 moulting birds m another, the sitting hens in a third, the 

 clean birds m a fourth, &c. ; and so strictly do birds in a 

 similar condition congregate, that, should a bird that is 

 moulting intrude itself among those that are clean, it is 

 immediately ejected from among them. The females 

 hatch the eggs by keeping them close between their 

 thighs, and if approached durmg the time of incubation, 

 move away, carrying the eggs with them. At this time 

 the male bhd goes to sea to collect food for the female, 

 which .soon becomes very fat. After the young is hatched, 

 both parents go to sea and bring home food for it, and it 

 soon becomes so fat as to be scarcely able to walk, — the 

 old birds getting very thin. They sit quite upright in 

 their roostmg-places, and walk in the erect position until 

 they arrive at the beach, when they throw themselves on 

 their breasts to encounter the very heavy sea which 

 awaits them." 



