PENGUINS. 463 



termed, under water after fish, is quite astonishing. 

 One which was caught in the Orkney Islands at first 

 refused all food, and became so weak that it was ex- 

 pected to die; at length, however, it was tempted to 

 eat, and being plentifully supplied with fish, soon re- 

 sumed its strength and activity. With a cord tied round 

 its leg to prevent its escape, it was permitted to sport 

 in the water; but even with this restraint, which must 

 have very much impeded its motions, it performed the 

 motions of diving and swimming with a speed that set 

 all pursuit from a boat at defiance, affording the most 

 convincing proof that, had it been at full liberty, no fish 

 could have escaped. 



The Aptenodytes, which may be called southern 

 Penguins, as they never come beyond the limits of the 

 Southern Ocean, are very numerous on the lonely isles 

 scattered over the dreary wilderness of those seas. The 

 largest of these, the King Penguin, exceeds a Goose in 

 size. As their legs project from their bodies in the 

 same direction with their tails, they walk upright ; and 

 when a flock of them are seen moving in file, or ar- 

 ranged along the ledges of the rocks, they appear liko 

 a company of soldiers; for they hold their heads very 

 high, with stretched necks, while their little flappers 

 project like two arms. As the feathers on their breasts 

 are beautifully white, with a line of black running across 

 the crop, they have been by others compared to a row 

 of children, with white aprons tied round their waists 

 with black strings. 



The great Albatross, as we have seen, spends the chief 

 part of his life on the wing ; the King Penguin, on the 

 other hand, rarely quits the water, with the exception of 

 the breeding season, when in some places, though not 

 always, as we shall see in our account of the Albatross, 

 in Tristan d'Acunha, both unite in vast flocks, and people 

 the rugged rocks for a time. When a sufficient number 

 of these birds are assembled on the shore, they appear, 

 like the Herons, Storks, and some other species we have 



