526 PROCKEDIXGS OF SECTIOX E. 



2.— ALLUSIONS TO PENGUINS AND SEALS IN A EOTEIRO 

 OF THE FIRST VOYAGE OF VASCO DA GAMA TO 

 INDIA. 



By JAMES R. McCLYMONT, 31. A. 



Penguins were seen by the companions of Vasco da Gama in the 

 Angra de Sao Bras, on the south coast of Africa, in December of the 

 year 1497, and in March, 1499. In a copy of the original manuscript of 

 a Roteiro of the voyage by an anonymous writer who accompanied the 

 expedition it is stated that the birds (which are described) are called 

 jotylicayos, which is, perhaps, an error of the copyist, and the word 

 sotylicayros was probably in the original manuscript, which is lost. In 

 a later entry in the Roteiro the name sotelycairos — in modern ortho- 

 graphy sotilicarios — is employed. It was one of the names apphed to 

 penguins as well as auks. 



We are told concerning these birds that they were as large as 

 ganders (patos), that their cries resembled the braying of asses, and that 

 they could not fly because they had no quills — feathers.(l) Manuel de 

 Mesquita Perestrello, who visited the same coast in 1575, adds to this 

 description that the ends of the wings of the sotilicairos {sic] were 

 covered with fine down {penugem), that the birds dived for fish, and 

 that they reared their young in nests constructed of fish-bones, which, 

 it may be inferred from the narrative, were the residue of the repasts 

 of penguins and seals. There is nothing to cavil at in these descriptions, 

 except perhaps the statement that the nests were constructed of fish- 

 bones, an observation which is not in accordance with the observations 

 of naturalists of the present day regarding Cape penguins, for these 

 birds, we learn, construct their nests with small stones, shells, and 

 debris,(2) 



In modern Portuguese penguins are called pinguins and, more 

 precisely, pinguins do sul, when the speaker desires to distinguish them 

 from auks, which are also called pinguins ; and we learn from the notes 

 to the Portuguese editions of the Roteiro that they also bear the name 

 mangote, sleeve, and cotete (? dwarf). The two last-mentioned names 

 have also been applied to auks, as well as to penguins. In the same bay 

 as that in which penguins were discovered — Mossel Bay, or another bay 

 in close proximity thereto — were also seals in large niimbers. They 

 are called lobos warinhos. On one occasion the Portuguese voyagers 

 counted 3,000 individuals. Some were as large as bears, and the sound 

 of their voice was like the roar of a lion ; others were very small, and 

 blealed hke kids. The Angra de Sao Bras was evidently a mustering- 

 place, or rookery, to which seals resort-ed from far and near. The 

 author of the Roteiro writes as if there were more than one kind of seal 

 in the Bav. but I do not think that this is likely to have been the case, 



(1) R(Jteiro de Viagem de Vasco da Gama em MCCCCXCVII., Segunda edicao. 

 Lisboa, 1861, pp. 14, 105, 142. 



(2) Moseley — Notes, p. 155. 



