478 



THE CAPE PENGUIN AND THE GUILLEMOT. 



of being employed as fore-legs in terrestrial progression when the bird 

 is in a hurry, and probably as oars or paddles in the water. There are 

 many species of Penguins, but, as they are very similar in general 

 habits, we must be content with a single example. 



The Cape Penguin is very common at the Cape of Good Hope and 

 the Falkland Islands. From the extraoidinary sound it produces while 



on shore, it is called the 

 ^^ m^__ Jackass Penguin. Darwin 



gives the following interest- 

 ing account of this bird : 

 '' In diving its little plume- 

 less wings are used as fins, 

 but on the land as fro7it 

 legs. When crawling (it may 

 be said on four legs) through 

 the tussocks or on the side 

 of a grassy cliff, it moved so 

 very quickly that it might 

 ^ readily have been mistaken 

 for a quadruped. When at 

 sea and fishing, it comes to 

 the surface for the purpose 

 of breathing with such a 

 spring, and dives again so 

 instantaneously, that I defy any one at first sight to be sure that it is 

 not a fish leaping for sport." 



These birds feed their young in a very singular manner. The parent 

 bird gets on a hillock and apparently delivers a v^ery impassioned speech 

 for a few minutes, at the end of which it lowers its head and opens its 

 beak. The young one, who has been a patient auditor, thrusts its head 

 into the open beak of the mother, and seems to suck its subsistence 

 from the throat of the parent bird. Another speech is immediately 

 made, and the same process repeated, until the young is satisfied. 



This Penguin is very courageous, but utterly destitute of the better 

 part of courage — discretion ; for it will boldly charge at a man just as 

 Don Quixote charged the wind-mills, and with the same success, as a 

 few blows from a stick are sufficient to lay a dozen birds prostrate. 

 The common Guillemot is an example of the next sub-family. 

 This bird is found plentifully on our coasts throughout the year, and 

 may be seen swimming and diving with a skill little inferior to that of 

 the divers. It can, however, use its legs and wings tolerably well, and 

 is said to convey its young from the rocks on which it is hatched by 

 taking it on the back and flying down to the water. 



The Guillemot lays one egg, singularly variable in color. I possess 



The Penguin {Spheniscus demer 



