Letters, Announcements, i^c. 489 



Sea-Lions on the beach remained stationary till we landed and 

 they were fired at, when they reared up and plunged along after 

 their peculiar fashion till they reached the sea. The island rises 

 pretty steeply from the water, and in some places displays high 

 cliffs of boulder-clay, on the ledges of which numbers of Cor- 

 morants and Gulls of various species were assembled. On 

 climbing one of the steep grassy banks, we witnessed a most 

 amusing sight in the Penguins [Spheniscus dcmersiis), which stood 

 erect and looked stupidly at us and then shuffled off, their little 

 wings hanging limp at their sides. When hard pressed they 

 abandoned their erect posture, and, crouching down, scoured 

 along the ground on their stomachs (on all-fours, if one may use 

 the expression, as their wings seemed to be used equally with 

 their legs as means of locomotion) till at last they reached their 

 burrows, in which they ensconced themselves, and turning 

 round, and moving their beads slowly from side to side with a 

 most inquisitive expression of countenance, barked and brayed 

 at their pursuers. They showed a very stout fnght on one at- 

 tempting to drag them out of their holes, biting most vigorously 

 with their stout beaks. I succeeded in raking one out with the 

 crook of a walking-stick, and despatched it ; and I also procured 

 a very young one, which, along with the heads of two rather 

 older individuals, I have preserved in spirits, as I thought it 

 might be interesting to examine the development of the cranial 

 bones. I did not manage to find any eggs, the season being too 

 far advanced. But perhaps the most striking sight on the island 

 was furnished by the breeding-places of the Cormorants, of 

 which there were several in large hollows on the summit of the 

 island, in the neighbourhood of small patches of salt water. 

 The birds were congregated on their nests literally in thousands, 

 and when they were disturbed, after running along for a few 

 paces after the fashion of a retreating army, rose into the air en 

 masse, winnowing it with their wings so as to produce a sound 

 like that of a strong breeze, and raising a thick cloud of dust. 

 The nests were regularly shaped slightly conical mounds about 

 nine inches high, formed of dried grass and other ])lants baked 

 into a solid mass with earth and guano, and hollowed out into 

 a shallow depression at the top. They were ranged in regular 



