PENGUINS. 



255 



The penguins are birds of the Southern Hemisphere, the most northerly 

 ranging species occurring in the Galapagos Islands, off the coast of South 

 America. They are chiefly remarkable for their close-set 

 plumage, unlike that of any other birds, and the flipper-like Tlie Penguins. 

 character of their wings. The feathers, which are harsh and Order 



scaly, and generally devoid of barbs, are distributed over Sphenisciformes. 

 the whole body, so that there are no bare spaces between the 

 feather-tracts, as in most birds. Penguins are found in astonishing numbers 

 in the Southern Seas, especially at their breeding- 

 places, which are selected on rocky islands, 

 such as Kerguelen, Tristan d'Acunha, the islets 

 round New Zealand, and the Falklands. As they 

 cannot fly, great havoc is worked among them 

 on their island homes during the nesting 

 season, when thousands are killed for the sake 

 of their oil. 



The penguins vary very much in size, 

 from the diminutive Eudypiila minor to the 

 gigantic emperor and king penguins (Apteno- 

 dytes patachonica) of the Antarctic Seas. They 

 always walk or hop in an erect position, 

 and they are assisted in the support of 

 their heavy bodies by the unusual strength 

 of their tarsi, the metatarsal bone being 

 very shorb and wide. The scapular bone 

 is also of unusual width for a bird. The 

 nestlings are covered with dense down, which 

 is retained for a considerable period, until, in 

 fact, the birds are nearly full-grown. 



The habits of all the penguins are very similar, and the following account 

 of the "Johnnie" (Pygoscelis taniata), by the Rev. A. E. Eaton, who 

 observed the species on Kerguelen Island, during the <k Transit of Venus 

 Expedition," is very characteristic of the order, and we therefore give the 

 following extracts : 



"It builds in communities, some of only a dozen, others from 70 to 150 

 families. A more populous colony was visited by six officers from the ships, 

 who estimated the number of nests in it to amount to 2,000 or more. 

 These larger communities are approached from the sea by regular paths, 

 conspicuous at a distance, like well-worn sheep tracks, which lead straight up 

 the hill from the water. Their formation is due to the penguins being very 

 particular about where they land and enter the sea. A small party of the 

 birds occupied a position upon the neck of a low promontory within an hour's 

 walk of Observatory Bay. Their nests were nearest to the farther side of 

 the isthmus ; bub when they were approached, the male birds used to run to 

 the water, not by the shortest route where it was deep close to the rocks, bub 

 by the longest to a place where the shore was shelving. It was amusing to 

 see them start off in a troop as fast as their legs could carry them, holding 

 out their wings and tumbling headlong over stones in their way, because as 

 they ran they would keep looking back instead of before them, and to hear 

 their outcries. Panic and consternation seemed to possess them all ; bub 

 the females (possibly because they could nob keep up with their mates) 

 seldom went far from their nests, and, if the intruder stood still, soon 



Fig. 21. THE KING PENGUIN 

 (Aptenodytes longirostris). 



