430 PENGUINS. 



water after fish, is quite astonishing. One which was 

 caught in the Orkney Islands at first refused all food, and 

 became so weak that it was expected to die ; at length, 

 however, it was tempted to eat, and being plentifully sup- 

 plied with fish, soon resumed its strength and activity. 

 With a cord tied round its leg to prevent its escape, it was 

 permitted to sport in the water ; but even with this restraint, 

 which must have very much impeded its motions, it per- 

 formed the motions of diving and swimming with a speed 

 that set all pursuit from a boat at defiance, affording the 

 most convincing proof that, had it been at full liberty, no fish 

 could have escaped. 



The Aptenodytes, which may be called southern Penguins, 

 as they never come beyond the limits of the Southern Ocean, 

 are very numerous on the lonely isles scattered over the 

 dreary wilderness of those seas. The largest of these, the 

 King Penguin, exceeds a Goose in size. As their legs 

 project from their bodies in the same direction with their 

 tails, they walk upright ; and when a flock of them are seen 

 moving in file, or arranged along the ledges of the rocks, 

 they appear like a company of soldiers ; for they hold their 

 heads very high, with stretched necks, while their little 

 flappers project like two arms. As the feathers on their 

 breasts are beautifully white, with a line of black running 

 across the crop, they have been by others compared to a row 

 of children, with white aprons tied round their waists with 

 black strings. 



The great Albatross, as we have seen, spends the chief 

 part of his life on the wing ; the King Penguin, on the 

 other hand, rarely quits the water, with the exception of the 

 breeding season, when in some places, though not always, as 

 we shall see in our account of the Albatross, in Tristan 

 d'Acunha, both unite in vast flocks, and people the rugged 

 rocks for a time. When a sufficient number of these birds 

 are assembled on the shore, they appear, like the Herons, 

 Storks, and some other species we have mentioned in the 

 preceding pages, to pass a day or two in deliberation ; on 

 concluding the consultation, they will proceed to the execu- 



