ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 59 



and Newfoundland, while it does not appear in any of the lists 

 referring to the region south of Massachusetts. Captain Bartholo- 

 mew Gosnold, in 1602, found " Pengwins " on the Massachusetts 

 coast at what he calls "Gilbert's Point," in latitude 41° 40'. He 

 says : " The twentieth, by the ships side we there killed Pengwins 

 and saw many sculls of fish." * The locality, as shown by the 

 context, was between the southeastern point of Cape Cod and 

 Nantucket Island, probably a few miles south of Egg Island. What 

 the bird called " Pengwin " was, that was so often referred to by 

 the early explorers of the New England coast, is clearly evident 

 from the following : Richard Whitbourne, in his account of his 

 voyage to Newfoundland, in 1618, says, "These Penguins are as 

 bigge as Geese, and flie not, for they have but little short wings, 

 & they multiply so infinitely, upon a certaine flat Island [Sable 

 Island], that men drive them from thence upon a boord into their 

 Boates by hundreds at a time ; as if God had made the innocencie 

 of so poore a creature to become such an admirable instrument for 

 the sustentation of man."+ The same bird is also referred to by 

 Josselyn as the " Wobble." He says : " The Wobble, an ill shaped 

 Fowl, having no long Feathers in their Pinions, which is the reason 

 they cannot fly, not much unlike the Pengwin ; they are in the 

 Spring very fat, or rather oyly, but pull'd and garbidgd, and laid 

 to the Fire to roast, they yield not one drop." % 



This bird, so valuable as a "commodity," and whose "innocencie" 

 rendered its capture so easy, doubtless did not long survive on the 

 coast of New England after the establishment here of permanent 

 settlements. 



Much might be added, did space allow, respecting the former 

 abundance of Ducks, Geese, Sandpipers, and Plovers. A few ex- 

 tracts on this point from Morton, in his own quaint language, must 

 here suffice. " There are Geese," he says, " of three sorts vize 

 brant Geese, which are pide, and white Geese which are bigger, and 

 gray Geese which are as bigg and bigger, then the tame Geese 

 of England, with black legges, black bills, heads, and necks black ; 

 the flesh farre more excellent, then the Geese of England, wilde or 



tame There is of them great abundance. I have had often 



1000 before the mouth of my gunne .... the fethers of the 



* Purchas's Pilgrims, Vol. IV, p. 1648. 

 ' t lb., Vol. IV, p. 1886. 



X New Englands Rarities, p. 11. 



