282 Voyage of the Novara. 



Penguin"* (^apterodytes chri/socome), in which we found at 

 the lowest estimate from 500 to 600 of these singular creatures, 

 which are adorned with grey-yellow tufts of feathers arranged 

 in a semicircle ahove the eyes, and which, as was well remarked 

 by the naturalist attached to the Lion, with the peculiar 

 plumage and the almost scaly covering of their fin-like wings, 

 suggest a remote resemblance to the form of a fish. Living 

 part of the year in the water, and passing most of the re- 

 mainder on land. Nature has, in a manner, adapted them for 

 these widely difi*ering modes of life. The dirty greyish-brown 

 attire of the young contrasts so strongly with the gay plumage 

 of the old penguin, that at the first glance they hardly seem to 

 belong to the same species. The females lay only one or 

 two eggs, usually in October, so that at the time of our 

 visit, the young were only about a month-and-a-half or so old. 

 These penguins, so graceful and nimble in the water, as if it 

 were their proper element, are very awkward on land, so as to be 

 easily caught, or knocked down with a stick. Only in so doing 

 it is necessary to be on one's guard against a blow from their 

 long sharp bills, with which they can inflict on their pursuer a 

 by no means trifling wound. In the course of centuries, during 

 which they have paid undisturbed visits to this island, they 

 have trodden a well-marked path from their breeding-place to 

 the edge of the sea ; and it is a proof of the wonderful instinct 



* Called also the " Jumping Jack " by the Enghsh sailors, from its custom of 

 jumping quite out of the water, like a porpoise, ou its eucoimtcring the slightest 

 obstacle. 



