Chap, vi.] CAl'E I'ENGUINS. 1 33 



bing between the toes is also in this otter rudimentary ; the 

 beast altogether is very heavily built, with the head very broad 

 and powerful. It appears to be an otter bent on returning to 

 land habits. 



I found two species of Land Planarian worms on some 

 American Agaves, in the grounds of the Observatory. At first 

 I thought these Planarians might have been introduced from 

 South America with the Agaves, but they correspond in struc- 

 ture exactly with the genus Rhynchodennis of Ceylon, and seem 

 certainly indigenous, although Land Planarians were not hither- 

 to known to exist in Africa.* 



A small Chameleon is very abundant everywhere on the 

 hedges near Cape Town, ^^'e had one alive in the ward-room ; 

 it was quite tame and rested quietly on a bunch of twigs, hung 

 up to the lamp rail, and would whip flies out of one's fingers 

 from a distance of at least four inches with its tongue. It gave 

 birth to three young ones one night : they at once twisted 

 their tails round the twigs on which the mother was reposing, 

 and began catching flies ; but our house-flies were too big 

 for their mouths to swallow, and they had to chew away at 

 them for a long time before they could get any juice out of 

 them. 



About the sea-shore at Simons Bay are quantities of cor- 

 morants, or shags, as they are called {Fhalacrocorax capensis) ; 

 they sit in groups on all the rocks about the town, and bask in 

 the sun, and at times appear in vast flights darkening the air. 

 Gannets {Siila capensis) are constantly in sight, and gulls {Lams 

 dominicanus) ever flying over the water. 



I paid a visit to an island in False Bay, called Seal Island. 

 It is a mere shelving rock on which it is only possible to land 

 on very favourable occasions. The whole place is a rookery 

 of the Jackass penguin {Sphenisciis demersiis). It is an ugly 

 bird as compared with the crested penguin of Tristan da 

 Cunha ; the bill is blunter, but the birds can nevertheless bite 

 hard with it : all the penguins seem to bite rather than peck. 

 The birds here nested on the open rock, which was fully ex- 

 posed to the burning sun and occasional rain. It must not be 

 supposed that either penguins or albatrosses are necessarily 

 inhabitants of cold climates, a species of penguin and an 

 albatross breed at the Galapagos Archipelago, almost exactly 

 on the equator. 



There was not a blade of grass on the rock, but it was 



* For a description of these Planarians, and an account of the Land 

 Planarians obtained during the voyage elsewhere, see H. N. Moseley, 

 " Notes on the Structure of several forms of Land Planarians," Quar 

 Journ. Micro. Sci., Vol. XVI L, New Sen, p. 273. 



