THE PENGUIN. 153 
Duperrey (“ Voyage de Ja Coquille,”) found the Falklands 
swarming with penguins. In summer and autumn these strange 
birds leave their burrows early in the morning, and launch into 
the sea for fishing. After having filled their capacious stomachs, 
they waddle on shore, and remain for a time congregated on the 
strand, raising a dreadful clamour; after which they retire to 
enjoy a noon-tide sleep among the high tussack grass or in their 
burrows. In the afternoon the fishing recommences. Lesson 
says that about sunset on fine summer evenings, which 
unfortunately are but of rare occurrence on those foggy, storm- 
visited islands, all the penguins together raise their discordant 
voices, so that at a distance the noise might be mistaken for 
the hoarse murmur of a great popular assembly. As soon as 
the young are sufficiently strong, the whole band leaves the 
island, departing no one knows whither, though the mariners 
frequenting those seas believe that they spend the winter on 
the ocean. This opinion seems to be corroborated by the 
observations of Sir James Ross, who, on the 4th of December, 
in 49° S. lat., met on the high sea a troop of penguins that 
were doubtless on the way to their breeding place. He 
admired the astonishing instinct of these creatures, half fish, 
half bird, which leads them hundreds of miles through the 
pathless ocean to their accustomed summer abodes. 
It may be imagined how the neighbouring seas must abound 
with fish, to be able to nourish such multitudes of penguins, 
whose stomach is capable of holding more than two pounds, and 
whose voracity is so great that they are often obliged to disgorge 
their superabundant meal. The elongated stomach reaches to 
the lower part of the abdomen, and the whole length of the 
intestinal canal is twenty-five feet, fifteen times longer than the 
body, so that nature has evidently provided for a most vigorous 
appetite, whetted by sea-bathing and sea air. 
There are several species of penguins. The largest (Apte- 
nodytes antarctica) weighs about eighty pounds. It is a rare 
bird, generally found singly, while the smaller species always 
associate in vast numbers. In 77° S. lat., Sir James Ross caught 
three of these giant penguins, the smallest of which weighed 
fifty-seven pounds. In the stomach of one of them he found 
ten pounds of quartz, granite, and trap fragments, swallowed 
most likely to promote digestion. 
M 2 
