NATATORES. 519 



from the weight of the body and the density of the 

 plumage, this bird swims very deep in the water, the head, 

 neck, and upper part of the back only being above the sur- 

 face. Its powers of progression in the deep are truly astonish- 

 ing ; it bounds through this element like the porpoise, and 

 uses its short fin-like wings as well as its feet to assist it in its 

 progress ; its swimming powers are in fact so great, that it 

 stems the waves of the most turbulent seas with the utmost 

 facility, and during the severest gale descends to the bottom, 

 where, among beautiful beds of coral and forests of sea-weed, 

 it paddles about in search of crustaceans, small fish, and 

 marine vegetables, all of which kinds of food were found in 

 the stomachs of those I dissected. 



A considerable portion of the year is occupied in the process 

 of breeding and rearing the young, in consequence of its being 

 necessary that their progeny should acquire sufficient vigour 

 to resist the raging of that element on which they are destined 

 to dwell, and which I believe they never again leave until by 

 the impulse of nature they in their turn seek the land for the 

 purpose of reproduction. Notwithstanding this care for the 

 preservation of the young, heavy gales of wind destroy them 

 in great numbers, hundreds being occasionally found dead on 

 the beach after a storm ; and when the sudden transition 

 from the quiet of their breeding-place to the turbulence of 

 the ocean, and the great activity and muscular exertion then 

 required, are taken into consideration, an occurrence of this 

 kind will not appear at all surprising. 



Some of the islands in Bass's Straits, where the Penguins are 

 numerous, are completely intersected by paths and avenues, 

 and so much care is expended by the birds in the formation 

 of these little walks that every stick and stone is removed, 

 and in some instances even the herbage, by which the surface 

 is rendered so neat and smooth as to appear more like the 

 w^ork of the human hand than the labour of one of the lower 

 animals. The islands generally chosen for this purpose are 



