Chap, v.] 



TUSSOCK GRASS. 



lOI 



there struggled and jumped up amongst the boulders and 

 revealed themselves as wet and dripping penguins, for such 

 they were. 



Much as I had read about the habits of penguins, I never 

 could have believed that the creatures I saw thus progressing 

 through the water were birds, unless I had seen them to my 

 astonishment thus make on shore. I had subsequently much 

 opportunity of watching their habits. 



We landed on the beach ; it was bounded along its whole 

 stretch at this point by a dense growth of tussock. The 



GROUP OK 



ROCK HOPPERS AT INACCESSIBLE ISLAND. 



(From a photograph.) 



tussock {Spatiina anindinacea), is a stout coarse reed-like grass : 

 it grows in large clumps, which have at their base large masses 

 of hard woody matter, formed of the bases of old stems and 

 roots. 



In penguin rookeries, the grass covers wide tracts with a 

 dense growth like that of a field of standing corn, but denser 

 and higher, the grass reaching high over one's head. 



The Falkland Island " tussock " {Dadylis ccespitosa), is of 

 a different genus, but it seems to have a similar habit. Here 



