390 HISTORY OF 



CHAPTER VII. 



OF THE PENGUIN KIND t AND FIRST, OF THE GREAT 

 MAGELLANIC PENGUIN. 



THE gulls are long-winged swift flyers, that hover 

 over the most extensive seas, and dart down upon 

 such fish as approach too near the surface. The 

 penguin kind are but ill fitted for flight, and still 

 less for walking. Every body must have seen 

 the awkward manner in which a duck, either wild 

 or tame, attempts to change place ; they must re- 

 collect with what softness and ease a gull or a kite 

 waves its pinions, and with what a coil and flut- 

 ter the duck attempts to move them ; how many 

 strokes it is obliged to give, in order to gather a 

 little air ; and even when it is thus raised, how 

 soon it is fatigued with the force of its exertions, 

 and obliged to take rest again. But the duck is 

 not, in its natural state, half so unwieldy an ani- 

 mal as the whole tribe of the penguin kind* Their 

 wings are much shorter, more scantily furnished 

 with quills, and the whole pinion placed too for- 

 ward to be usefully employed. For this reason, 

 the largest of the penguin kind, that have a thick 

 heavy body to raise, cannot fly at all. Their 

 wings serve them rather as paddles to help them 

 forward, when they attempt to move swiftly ; and 

 in a manner walk along the surface of the water. 

 Even the smaller kinds seldom fly by choice ; they 

 flutter their wings with the swiftest efforts with- 



