550 



PENGUINS. 



pace, by a series of successive leaps out of the water, and splashes into it again, 

 describing short curves in the air, taking headers out of the water and headers 

 into it again ;" splash, splash, went this .marvellous shoal of animals, till they 

 went splash through the surf on to .the black stony beach, and there struggled 

 and jumped up amongst the boulders and revealed themselves as wet and dripping 

 penguins r for such they were." On landing, the - pe'nguins always make for cer- 

 tain well-defined tracts leading up to the " rookeries," as^heir places of assembly 

 are called, and where they not ^infrequently collect in thousands; these' main 

 tracts branching out into a number of diverging pathacwhen they reach the 

 rookery. The nest of the rock-hopper is merely a shallow depression in the black 

 soil, which may or may not be lined with a :f ew stalks of dry grass. In this are 

 deposited two greenish white eggs, ab6ut the size of those of a duck, in the incuba- 

 tion of which both male and female birds take their share. The black-footed 

 species, according to Layard, deposits, however, but a single white egg, which rests 

 on the bare ground. On the other hand, the jackass-penguin is in the habit of 

 nesting in burrows, which may be as much as twenty feet in depth ; and the same 

 is also not unfrequently the case with the little blue penguin of New Zealand, 

 although the two eggs of this species are sometimes laid in the crevices of rocks. 

 The breeding-time of this species on the islands off the Cape lasts through August, 

 September, and October. 



The penguins inhabiting Tristan da Cunha migrate about April, and return in 

 July or August ; but where they go seems not to be ascertained, although it is 

 quite certain that they cannot remain at sea for such a protracted period. Although 

 during their aquatic journey they do not travel with anything like the speed of 

 birds on the wing, they have, as Moseley remarks, the compensating advantage of 

 a constant supply of food. Writing of the habits of the little blue penguin, Gould 

 observes that "its powers of progression in the deep are truly astonishing; its 

 swimming powers are in fact so great that it stems the waves of the most turbulent 

 seas with the utmost facility, and during the severest gale descends to the bottom, 

 where, among beautiful beds of coral and forests of seaweed, it paddles about in 

 search of crustaceans, small fish, and marine vegetables, all of which kinds of food 

 were found in the stomachs of those I dissected." Of the jackass-penguin, Darwin 

 says that when crawling, it may be said, on four legs, through the tussocks or on 

 the side of a grassy cliff, it moves so very quickly that it might easily be taken 

 for a quadruped. When at sea and fishing, it comes to the surface for the purpose 

 of breathing with such velocity, and dives again so instantaneously, that I defy 

 any one at first sight to be sure that it is not a fish leaping for sport. This species, 

 by the way, derives its popular name from its habit, when on shore, of throwing 

 back its head and giving vent to a cry not unlike a donkey's bray. 



