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CHAPTER XX. 



Penguins Fin-winged King Penguin of the Southern Regions 

 described Breeding-places Valuable for Oil. Sea Fowler's 

 perilous Occupation Description of, in Shetland, St. Kilda, 

 &c. Singular Escapes Fatal Accidents. 



HITHERTO we have considered birds as more or less 

 inhabitants of the air, gifted with wings for that 

 purpose : it remains for us to speak of two families, pos- 

 sessing, indeed, wings, but too small to assist them in flight, 

 and used, therefore, 

 only as fish use their 

 fins, for giving them 

 additional powers on, 

 or beneath, the surface 

 of the water, where 

 they pass the greater 

 part of their existence. 

 They are the Penguins, 

 properly so called, and 

 the Aptenodytes, a 

 word compounded from 

 the Greek, signifying 

 wingless divers ; for 

 although the wings of 

 the former scarcely 

 deserve the name, they 

 are nevertheless co- 

 vered to a certain 

 degree with feathers, whereas those of the latter are only 

 furnished with vestiges of feathers, at first sight much 

 resembling fish-scales. 



The Penguins are chiefly confined to the coldest regions 

 of the northern or southern hemispheres. The rapidity 

 -with which these birds fly, if it may be so termed, under 



Penguin. 



