Penguins. 



73 



toes included in the broad web, hence the feet have 

 a singularly inturned appearance (fig. 33). Many of 

 them have long bills and throat FIG. 33 . 



pouches, like the pelicans and fri- 

 gate birds ; other and better known 

 forms are the gannets, cormorants, 

 and long-tailed tropic birds. 



47. Order 14, Pygopodes. 

 The last order of birds includes a 

 singular assemblage of seabirds, 

 whose wings are small and sickle- 

 shaped, scarcely fitted for flight, 

 and sometimes with scale-like fea- 

 thers, as the penguins of the Ant- 

 arctic Ocean. They have the hind 

 limbs even farther back than in 



the generality of seabirds, and hence the curious erect 

 position assumed by these birds when standing ; they 

 have hard pointed compressed bills, and a small hind 

 toe, the three anterior toes are closely webbed. The 

 auks of the northern seas, the puffins, guillemots, and 

 razorbills of our shores, are the most familiar examples. 

 The great auk of the northern seas, is wingless, and 

 like the dodo has become extinct. 



48. Migration of Birds. Among birds, as among 

 fishes, we notice the curious habit of periodical mi- 

 gration ; the travelling at regular periods into districts 

 wherein suitable food is abundant, and their return 

 on change of season ; thus the swallows, swifts, rice 

 birds and warblers visit the north about the middle 

 of April, breed there, and then return to their winter 

 quarters in the Southern States and the West Indies 



