54 SPHENISCIFORMES CHAP. 
as forefeet.' They fly straight and rapidly, with head and feet 
extended, but have ditticulty in leaving the water; they dive at the 
slightest alarm, their quick sight enabling them to vanish below 
the surface at the flash of a gun, to reappear, with hardly a ripple, 
at a distance. Frequently it requires much patience to obtain a 
second view, as their bodies can be submerged to any extent, and at 
times the bill alone is exposed. In swimming they jerk the head 
and often rise vertically to shake their wings. They descend from 
the air with a splash and a glide, while in diving the feet alone act 
as oars, the young soon equalling their parents in this respect. 
The note is a harsh croak in the larger forms, a softer sound or 
“whit-whit ” in the smailer; the food consists of fish when 
procurable, but small reptiles, amphibians, molluscs, crustaceans, 
insects, and vegetable matter are frequently added, and feathers 
of some size are constantly found in the stomach. The nest, 
a pile of aquatic weeds or rushes of varying bulk, is fixed among 
reeds, sedges, semi-natant masses of herbage, or, more rarely, 
upon low branches of trees or bushes verging upon the water. 
Should this rise higher, fresh materials are added. From 
three to six bluish-white eggs with a smooth chalky cover- 
ing are laid in a slight depression above, but being covered 
with wet weeds by the female on leaving, soon become stained 
with brown. The bill is used in concealing them, nor does an 
invader’s presence usually hinder the operation. Incubation lasts 
from twenty-one to twenty-four days. Both sexes are said to 
assist, and the mother carries the nestlings on her back, or even 
dives with them in that position. 
Order III. SPHENISCIFORMES. 
The Order Sphenisciformes, with its Sub-Order SPHENISCT, 
contains only those remarkable marine birds the Penguins (Fam. 
Spheniscidae), the life of which is chiefly spent on the stormy 
waters of the Antarctic seas. Coupled by former writers with 
the Auks, their northern analogues, it has now been shown that the 
slight external similarity of the two groups is utterly misleading, 
the nearest allies of the primitive forms here treated being the 
Petrels on the one hand and the Divers and Grebes on the other. 
Their unique structure is correlated with very peculiar habits. 
1 A. Newton, Zb7s, 1889, p- i The 
