44 BIRDS OF KERGUELEN ISLAND. 



at the rookery near us, standiug gravely together for hours and doing 

 nothing, as is their custom ; but a small proportion being nesting females. 

 Probably half as many more, in companies of twenty or so, were labori- 

 ously toiling up the steep paths from the sea. So long and difficult a 

 journey seems strange enough, undertaken by birds so slow of locomo- 

 tion as penguins. But members of this species at least are by no means 

 slow in getting over the ground, and, although they do not unfrequently 

 fall upon their bellies, they are i^rorapt in picking themselves up again, 

 and seem to look upon such falls as a natural i^art of their j)rogress. 

 Thej' do not at all find it necessary to drag themselves up a gentle slope 

 on their bellies by the aid of flipper and beak, as has been stated. 



No living thing that I ever saw expresses so graphically a state of 

 hurry as a penguin when trying to escape. Its neck is stretched out, 

 flippers whirring like the sails of a wind-mill, and body wagging from 

 side to side, as its short legs make stumbling and frantic efforts to get 

 over the ground. There is such an expression of anxiety written all 

 over the bird; it picks itself up from every fall and stumbles again with 

 such an air of having an armful of bundles, that it escapes capture quite 

 as often by the laughter of the pursuer as by its own really considerable 

 speed. 



On the 3d of December, near the landing-cove already mentioned, 

 about the time of hatching, I observed a school of these penguins pro- 

 gressing by leaps clear of the water ; one following another in so rapid 

 succession that two or tliree were always in the air, and with a motion 

 so like that of a school of porpoises, that I at first took them for those 

 marine mammals. In the water, indeed, all awkwardness at once dis- 

 appears; their speed in swimming being almost incredible, and surpass- 

 ing, of course, that of the fish upon which they feed. 



December 4, 1 found one young j)enguin just hatched and three more 

 still in the eggs, which they had broken with their beaks. As already 

 stated, however, this rookery was very much behind time, and I know of a 

 young penguin having been captured as early as October 12. The young 

 were covered with soft, hairy, pearl-gray down. Head black above and 

 behind ; bill flesh-colored ; feet black on the soles and flesh-colored 

 above. (Original numbers 119, 120, 121, and 122.) 



