NATATORES. 427 



lay, in company, each a single egg of a pale green, blotched 

 with dark brown spots. So close are they together, that the birds, 

 when sitting nearly upright, almost touch each other, covering 

 the ledges ot the rocks upon which their young are hatched, and 

 from whence they take to the water in five or six weeks. 



The PENGUINS, Aptenodytes, (Gr. a, priv., ptenos, winged ; 

 dutes, a diver,) seem to be among the Natatores what the Os- 

 triches are among the strictly terrestrial birds. Swainson re- 

 marks that "the hind toe in the Penguins and Cormorants is 

 placed almost as far forward as in the Swifts. In the Penguin 

 the tarsus is so short -as almost to be confounded with the sole of 

 the foot, and is probably rested on the ground when the bird 

 walks, just as in the bear and other plantigrade quadrupeds. 

 The whole foot is remarkably flattened, as if to enable the bird 

 to cover a greater breadth of ground." (Classification of birds, 

 Vol. I.) 



The bones are described as very hard, compact and heavy, 

 having no aperture for the admission of air ; but they cohtain, 

 especially the bones of the extremities, a thin oily marrow. The 

 sensations of these birds are by no means acute. One writer 

 relates that he stumbled over a sleeping one and kicked it some 

 yards without disturbing its rest. Another states that he left a 

 number of these birds apparently lifeless, while he went in pur- 

 suit of others ; but they afterwards got up and marched off with 

 their usual gravity. 



The habits of the Penguins are highly interesting, and have 

 frequently been described. Their camps, towns, and rookeries, 

 so called, are largely descanted upon by southern voyagers. 

 Those at the Falkland Islands have attracted particular atten- 

 tion.* The rookeries are said to be designed with the utmost 

 order and regularity, though they are the resort of different species. 

 But in the midst of this apparent order, there seems to be a want 

 of good government, the stronger species stealing the eggs of the 

 weaker, if they be left unguarded. The King or Patagonian 

 Penguin, A. Patachonica, (Plate X. fig. 9b,) is said to be the great- 



* The rookeries at the Falkland Islands above referred to, sink into insig- 

 nificance when compared with a settlement of the King Penguins recorded 

 by Mr. Gr. Bennett, who saw at the north end of Macquarrie Island, in the 

 South Pacific ocean, a colony of these birds which covered an extent of 

 thirty or forty acres. He describes the number of Penguins collected to- 

 gether in this spot as immense, but observes that " it would be impossible 

 to guess at it with any near approach to truth, as during the whole of the 

 day and night, 30,000 or 40,000 are continually landing, and an equal num- 

 ber going to sea." 



