WATER-FOWL. 209 



is pre/ious to their laying, which generally begins, in that part of the 

 world, in the -month of November. Their preparations for laying are 

 attended with no great trouble, as a small depression in the earth, 

 without any other nest, serves for this purpose. Trie warmth of their 

 leathers and the heat of their bodies are such, that the progress of in- 

 cubation is carried on very rapidly. 



But there is a difference in the manner of this bird's nestling in 

 other countries, which I can only ascribe to the frequent disturbances 

 it has received from man or quadrupeds in its recesses. In some 

 places, instead of contenting itself with a superficial depression in the 

 earth, the penguin is found to burrow two or three yards deep . in 

 other places it is seen to forsake the level, and to clamber up the ledge 

 of a rock, where it lays its egg, and hatches it in that bleak exposed 

 situation. These precautions may probably have been taken, in con- 

 sequence of dear-bought experience. In those countries where the 

 bird fears for her own safety, or that of her young, she may provi- 

 dently provide against danger, by digging, or even by climbing ; for 

 both which she is but ill adapted by nature. In those places, how- 

 ever, where the penguin has had but few visits from man, her nest is 

 made, with the most confident security, in the middle of some large 

 plain, where they are seen by thousands. In that unguarded situa- 

 tion, neither expecting nor fearing a powerful enemy, they continue 

 to sit brooding; and even when man comes among them, have at first 

 no apprehension of their danger. Some of this tribe have been call- 

 ed, by our seamen, the Booby, from the total insensibility which they 

 show when they are sought to their destruction. But it is not con- 

 sidered that these birds have never been taught to know the dangers 

 of a human enemy : it is against the fox or the vulture that they have 

 learned to defend themselves ; but they have no idea of injury from a 

 being so very unlike their natural opposers. The penguins, there- 

 fore, when our seamen first came among them, tamely suffered them- 

 selves to be knocked on the head, without even attempting an escape. 

 They have stood to be shot at in flocks, without offering to move, in 

 silent wonder, till every one of their number has been destroyed. 

 Their attachment to their nests was still more powerful ; for the fe- 

 males tamely suffered the men to approach and take their eggs, with- 

 out any resistance. But the experience of a few of those unfriendly 

 visits, has long since taught them to be more upon their guard in 

 choosing their situations ; or to leave those retreats where they were 

 so little able to oppose their invaders. 



The penguin lays but one egg; and, in frequented shores, is found 

 to burrow like a rabbit : sometimes three or four take possession of 

 one hole, and hatch their young together. In the holes of the rocks, 

 where nature has made them a retreat, several of this tribe, as Linnaeus 

 assures us, are seen together. There the females lay their single egg, 

 in a common nest, and sit upon this, their general possession, by 

 turns ; while one is placed as a sentinel, to give warning of approach- 

 ing danger. The egg of the penguin, as well as of all this tribe, is 

 very large for the size of the bird, being generally found bigger than 

 that of a goose. But as there are many varieties of the penguin, and 

 as they differ in size, from that of a Muscovy duck to a swan, tho egga 

 differ in the same proportion. 



