GENERA OF PENGUINS 



the various islands of the Antarctic ocean, from the 

 Falklands in the west to New Zealand in the east, and 

 as far north only as to the Cape of Good Hope. They 

 are almost alone in their limitation to this region of 

 the globe. Within this cold and inhospitable, though 

 fish-teeming, expanse, the penguins are represented by 

 a considerable number of forms, which have been 

 arranged into at any rate five different generic types. 

 These are Aptenodytes, Spheniscus, Eudyptes, Eudyptula 

 and Pygosceles. Our particular type and five or six 

 of the rest have been frequently on view at the Zoo, 

 where they attract great attention from their grotesque 

 form and their easy and lithe movements under water. 

 On shore, and at the brink of their pools at the Zoo, 

 they waddle or hop awkwardly ; a small penguin which 

 was some years ago in the renovated Fish House was 

 clad on occasions by the keeper with a little coat, and 

 hopped more energetically than, but with something 

 of the air of, an elderly and obese gentleman. In 

 fact the first observers of penguins took them, from their 

 upright position and from being drawn up in lines, to be 

 soldiers prepared to repel an invasion of their fast- 

 nesses. Far from being so prepared, the bulk of penguins 

 are or were, for they may be in places a little more 

 sophisticated, stupidly unaware of intended harm, 

 and they could be knocked over by thousands with a 

 stick. Obese penguins always are, as their very name, 

 which is supposed to be connected with the Latin 

 " pinguis," denotes. Some ingenious commentators 

 have sought in Pen Gwin, i.e. " white head," a deriva- 

 tion of the pseudo-vernacular name by which every- 

 body knows them now. The penguin is not a good goer 

 upon dry land. His legs, rather swaddled up in skin, 

 do not permit of an easy stride or even an efficient 

 hop. But as the bird never goes away far from the sea, 

 its proper home, this unfitness is not a serious matter 



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