54 SPHENISCIFORMES chap. 



as forefeet.^ They fly straight and rapidly, with head and feet 

 extended, but have difficulty in leaving the water ; they dive at the 

 slightest alarm, their quick sight enabling them to vanish below 

 the surface at the flash of a gun, to reappear, with hardly a ripple, 

 at a distance. Frequently it requires much patience to obtain a 

 second view, as their bodies can be submerged to any extent, and at 

 times the bill alone is exposed. In swimming they jerk the head 

 and often rise vertically to shake their wings. They descend from 

 the air with a splash and a glide, while in diving the feet alone act 

 as oars, the young soon equalling their parents in this respect. 

 The note is a harsh croak in the larger forms, a softer sound or 

 "whit- whit" in the smaller; the food consists of fish when M^ 

 procurable, but small reptiles, amphibians, molluscs, crustaceans, 

 insects, and vegetable matter are frequently added, and featliers 

 of some size are constantly found in the stomach. The nest, 

 a pile of aquatic weeds or rushes of varying bulk, is fixed among 

 reeds, sedges, semi-natant masses of herbage, or, more rarely, 

 upon low branches of trees or bushes verging upon the water. 

 Should this rise higher, fresh materials are added. From '"^ 



three to six bluish -white eggs with a smooth chalky cover- 

 ing are laid in a slight depression above, but being covered 

 with wet weeds by the female on leaving, soon become stained 

 with brown. The bill is used in concealing them, nor does an 

 invader's presence usually hinder the operation. Incubation lasts 

 from twenty-one to twenty-four days. Both sexes are said to 

 assist, and the mother carries the nestlings on her back, or even 

 dives with them in that position. 



Order III. SPHENISCIFORMES. f_,, 



' tail 



The Order Sphenisciformes, with its Sub-Order Sphenisci, 

 contains only those remarkable marine birds the Penguins (Fam. {| B 

 Spheniscidae), the life of which is chiefly spent on the stormy 

 waters of the Antarctic seas. Coupled by former writers with jjtli 

 the Auks, their northern analogues, it has now been shown tliat the 

 slight external similarity of the two groups is utterly misleading, 

 the nearest allies of the primitive forms here treated being tlie 

 Petrels on the one hand and the Divers and G-rebes on the other. 

 Their unique structure is correlated with very peculiar habits. J 'J lie 



^ A. Newton, Ibis, 1889, p. 577. 



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