278 THE UNIVERSE. 



largest fish, and utterly confounds the smaller ones, their 

 habitual prey. 



Seated on their tails, and always in an upright position 

 on the shore, these birds, scattered about in innumerable 

 bands, with their white bellies and their black cowls and 

 cloaks, recall the costume of certain religious bodies ; a fact 

 which has made sailors often compare them to a procession 

 of penitents. 



Excellent swimmers, but bad walkers, penguins, not be- 

 ing able to build either in trees or on the sea, have been 

 obliged to content themselves with the shore. Of too lim- 

 ited a capacity to weave a nest, they are satisfied, being 

 simply miners, with scooping out a hole in the ground. 



It is generally on desert islands covered with grass that 

 these animals establish their subterranean abodes. They 

 hollow these out by means of their beak and feet just be- 

 neath the ground, and make them sometimes as much as 

 three feet deep. The interior by its form gives one the 

 idea of an oven, of which the narrow and depressed en- 

 trance well represents the door. From every cavern pro- 

 ceeds a concealed road, carried through the tall grass and 

 covered by the tops of it. It is by these tortuous and 

 shady paths that the birds pass from their nests to the 

 shore. 



These subterranean works have multiplied to such an ex- 

 tent in some localities that it often happens that the sailors 

 sink in when walking. The penguin, disturbed by this un- 

 expected invasion, throws itself upon the imprudent mortal 

 who has broken into its abode, and frequently the visitor 

 cannot withdraw his leg till he has received some smart 



