160 THE ATLANTIC. [chap. hi. 



regular order u]3 to tlie rookery. In the mean time a party of 

 about equal number appear from tlie rookery at the end of an- 

 other of the paths. When they get out of the grass on to the 

 beach, they all stop and talk and look about them, sometimes 

 for three or four minutes. They then with one consent scuttle 

 down over the stones into the water, and long lines of ripple 

 radiating rapidly from their jjlace of departure are the onh^ in- 

 dications that tlie birds are speeding out to sea. The tussock- 

 brake, which in Inaccessible Island is perhaps four or live acres 

 in extent, was alive with penguins breeding. The nests are 

 built of the stems and leaves of the SjMrtina in the spaces be- 

 tween the tussocks. They are two or three inches high, with a 

 slight depression for the eggs, and about a foot in diameter. 

 The gangwaj^s between the tussocks, along which penguins are 

 constantly passing, are wet and slushy ; and the tangled grass, 

 the strong ammoniacal smell, and the deafening noise (contin- 

 ually penetrated by loud separate sounds which have a startling 

 resemblance to the human voice), make a walk through the 

 rookery neither easy nor pleasant. 



The penguin is thickly covered with the closest felting of 

 down aud feathers, except a longitudinal band, which in the fe- 

 male extends along the middle line of the lower part of the ab- 

 domen, and which, at all events in the breeding season, is with- 

 out feathers. The bird seats herself almost upright upon the 

 eggs, supported by the feet and the stiff feathers of the tail, the 

 feathers of the abdomen drawn apart, and the naked band di- 

 rectly applied to the eggs, doubtless with the object of bringing 

 them into immediate contact with the source of warmth. The 

 female and the male sit by turns ; but the featlierless space, if 

 present, is not nearly so marked in the male. When they shift 

 sitters, they sidle up close together, and the change is made so 

 rapidly that the eggs are scarcely uncovered for a moment. The 

 young, which are hatched in about six weeks, are curious-look- 

 ing little things covered with "black down. 



