328 



NATURE 



\_Feb. 21, 1878 



zoa, and Alcyonaria, will be described under the super- 

 intendence of Prof. Lacaze Duthiers. 

 . In this present memoir M. Vdlain himself gives some 

 most graphic descriptions of the birds that were met with. 

 The little swift seen by Dr. Scherzer, of the Novara, did 

 not turn up, nor were any land birds met with, but the 



aquatic birds abounded in immense numbers. Among 

 these were the following : — Dwmedea exulans, D. fidigi- 

 nosa, D. inelanophrys, D. chlororhyncha, Ossifraga 

 gi^antea, Procellaria capensis, P. cine re a, P. hcesttata, 

 Puffinus cnquinoctxalis, Stercorarius antarciicus, Prioti 

 vittatits, Sterna melanoptera, and last, but by no means 



Fig. 4. — Penguins and Young. 



the less important, Eudypies chrysolopha. The history 

 of these last birds, though often told, is ever strange, and 

 seems always new. In the month of September these 

 penguins began to lay ; there were two colonies of them, 

 the larger of which contained millions of the birds ; the 



ground seemed alive with them. But it would be impos- 

 sible, in a few words, to tell the reader all that M. Ve'lain 

 has here written about their village life and their infant- 

 schools ; about their wonderful powers of diving ; nor do 

 we wonder that he looks back with no regret to the pleasant 



