5 6 SPHENISCIFORMES 



CHAP. 



and regaining it by the aid of their flippers. Several species are 

 called Rock-hoppers, from their manner of hopping upon the 

 boulders. They are, however, rarely seen on land, except in the 

 breeding season, though equally gregarious at all times, swimming 

 in " schools " and resorting in vast numbers to their " rookeries." 

 When submerged, the wings act as paddles with alternating 

 rotatory action, and the feet as rudders ; but on the return to the 

 surface the latter naturally become the propellers. The note is a 

 croak, a scream, a murmuring sound, or, in the young, a whistle. 

 The food of crustaceans, cephalopods, and other molluscs, is varied 

 by fish or a little vegetable matter, and accompanied by a mass of 

 pebbles, often ejected near the breeding places. The nest of grass 

 and leaves more rarely of twigs, pebbles, clay or rubbish, when 

 herbage is scarce may be in burrows, among tussocks, under stones, 

 in caves, or in the open ; the two coarse-flavoured eggs being white 

 or greenish-white, with a variable amount of chalky incrusta- 

 tion. The male is said to assist in incubation, which lasts about 

 six weeks ; the parents sit very closely and feed the blind young 

 for an exceptionally long period, by inserting their bill in that of 

 the nestling. Pugnacious and thievish towards one another, 

 Penguins are usually fearless on land, though, when they are 

 irritated, the beak can inflict a very severe bite. 



The range extends southwards from the Galapagos round Cape 

 Horn to the Falkland Islands, a few stragglers reaching Brazil ; 

 thence breeding stations are found eastwards in Tristan da Cunha, 

 off the Cape of Good Hope, in the Crozets, Marion, and Amsterdam 

 Islands, Kerguelen Land, and so on to the south of Australia and 

 New Zealand, with the Antarctic regions as far as man has pene- 

 trated. The largest form is Aptenodytes forsteri, and the smallest 

 Spheniscus minor, about 3 6 and 1 9 inches long respectively ; the 

 sexes are alike in colour, or the female may be a little duller 

 aud resemble the young. The bill and feet are usually reddish- 

 brown, black or grey, but the latter may be whitish. The nestling 

 in down is blackish- or yellowish-brown with white lower parts. 



A. forsteri, the Emperor Penguin of Victoria Land and the 

 adjacent seas, is blackish-grey, with white breast and belly and an 

 oval yellow spot on each side of the head. It is particularly tame, 

 and moves at a marvellous rate by lying on the snow and pro- 

 pelling itself with its feet. 1 A. pennanti, the King Penguin of 

 1 P. L. Sclater, Ibis, 1888, p. 330. 



