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CHAPTER XX. 



Penguins. Fin-winged. King Penguin of the Southern Regions de- 

 scribed. Breeding-places. Valuable for Oil. Sea Fowler's perilous 

 Occupation. Description of, in Shetland, St. Kilda, &c. Singular 

 Escapes. Fatal Accidents. 



HITHERTO we have considered birds as more or less inhabitants 

 of the air, gifted with wings for that purpose ; it remains for 

 us to speak of two families, possessing, indeed, wings, but too 

 small to assist them in flight, and used, therefore, only as fish 



use their fins, for giving 

 them additional powers 

 on, or beneath, the surface 

 of the water, where they 

 pass the greater part of 

 their existence. They are 

 the Penguins, properly so 

 called, and the Apteno- 

 dytes, a word compounded 

 from the Greek, signify- 

 ing wingless divers; for 

 although the wings of the 

 former scarcely deserve the 

 name, they are neverthe- 

 less covered to a certain de- 

 gree with feathers, whereas 

 those of the latter are only furnished with vestiges of feathers, 

 at first sight much resembling fish-scales. 



The Penguins are chiefly confined to the coldest regions of 

 the southern hemisphere. The rapidity with which these birds 

 fly, if it may be so termed, under water after fish is quite 

 astonishing. One which was caught in the Orkney Islands at 



The Penguin. 



