2 ' . HUTTON, Penoiiins. [is^July 



remain under water longer than other birds. How long they can 

 remain under water without coming up to breathe is not known. 

 Sir John Murray, of the Challenger Expedition, says that a 

 Crested Penguin placed in a basket and submerged was dead in 

 a minute and a half. But this can hardly be taken as a fair test. 



Another peculiarity in the skeleton of the Penguins is that 

 the three metatarsal bones of the leg are very short, and 

 separated by deep grooves throughout their whole length, the 

 grooves generally penetrating completely through the bone in 

 two places, so as to produce two large inter-metatarsal foramina. 

 This is a point to which I shall have to refer later on. 



On the land Penguins are not so active as in the water, but 

 it is a mistake to suppose that they are plantigrade, or in other 

 words that they apply the lower surface of the metatarsus to the 

 ground when walking or hopping. They walk or hop on their 

 toes like other birds, and it is only when they are resting that 

 they place the metatarsus on the ground, a habit which is by no 

 means peculiar to Penguins. When on the snow or smooth ice 

 they are said to lie down on their stomachs and push themselves 

 along with their wings so rapidly that a man running can 

 hardly keep up with them. 



When on shore they sleep a good deal in the daytime, 

 tucking their heads behind their small wings, while they make 

 a hideous noise all night. So I fancy that day and night are 

 much the same to them. They feed largely on cuttle-fish and 

 Crustacea, but no doubt they eat fish as well. 



In size and in colours both sexes are alike, but the young 

 birds generally differ from the adults. 



The Penguins belong entirely to the southern hemisphere ; 

 and New Zealand, with the neighbouring islands, may be looked 

 upon as their headquarters, for all the genera except 

 Spheniscus are found there. To the south they extend as far as 

 the border of the antarctic ice ; while on the west coast of South 

 America they are found as far north as the coast of Peru, and 

 one species inhabits the Galapagos Islands, which are situated 

 on the equator. On the east coast of South America they 

 extend only up to Rio Grande do Sul. In Australia and South 

 Africa they inhabit the southern coasts only. 



They are a small group of birds forming a single family. 

 But this family may be divided into three sub-families, which 

 have slightly different geographical distributions. The first sub- 

 family contains the genera Aptenodytes and Pygoscelis, which 

 inhabit the antarctic regions from the ice up to about 53' S. 

 The second sub-family consists of the genera Catarrhactes and 

 Mcgadyptes. These are found between 55° S. and 38° S. The 

 third sub-family contains Spheniscus and Eudyptula, which do 

 not live further south than 45° or 50°, and extend to the most 

 northern limits reached bv the Penguins. 



