WATER-FOWL 197 



ligue ; Imt, night and day upon the wing, are always prowling, yet 

 Uways emaciated and hungry. 



But though this bird be one of the most formidable tyrants of the 

 deep, there are some associations which even tyrants themselves foim, 

 to which they are induced either by caprice or necessity. The al- 

 batross seems to have a peculiar affection for the penguin, and a 

 pleasure in its society. They are always seen to choose the same 

 places of breeding ; some distant, uninhabited island, where the 

 ground slants to the sea, as the penguin is not formed either for fly- 

 ing or climbing. In such places their nests are seen together, as if 

 they stood in need of mutual assistance and protection, Captain 

 Hunt, who for some time commanded at our settlement upon Falkland 

 Islands, assures me, that he was often amazed at the union preserved 

 between these birds, and the regularity with which they built toge- 

 ther. In that bleak and desolate spot, where the birds had long con- 

 tinued undisturbed possessors, and noway dreaded the encroachment 

 of men, they seemed to make their abode as comfortable as they ex- 

 pected it to be lasting. They were seen to build with an amazing 

 degree of uniformity ; their nests covering fields by thousands, and re- 

 sembling a regular plantation. In the middle, on high, the albatross 

 raised its nests, on heath, sticks, and long grass, about two feet above 

 the surface : and around this the penguins made their lower settle- 

 ments, rather in holes in the ground, and most usually eight pen- 

 guins to one albatross. Nothing is a stronger proof of Mr. Buffon's 

 fine observation, that the presence of man not only destroys the so- 

 ciety of meaner animals, but their instincts also. These nests are 

 now, I am told, totally destroyed ; the society is broke up ; and the 

 albatross and penguin have gone to breed upon more desert shores, 

 in greater security. 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE CORMORANT. 



THE Cormorant is about the size of a large Muscovy duck, and 

 nay be distinguished from all other birds of this kind, by its four toes 

 being united by membranes together ; and by the middle toe being 

 toothed or notched, like a saw, to assist it in holding its fishy prey. 

 The head and neck of this bird are of a sooty blackness ; and the 

 oody thick and heavy, more inclining in figure to that of the goose 

 than the gull. The bill is straight, till near the end, where the up- 

 per chap bends into a hook. 



But notwithstanding the seeming heaviness of its make, there are 

 few birds more powerfully predaceous. As soon as the winter ap- 

 proaches, they are seen dispersed along the sea-shore, and ascending 

 ap the mouths of fresh-water rivers, carrying destruction to all the 



