76 BIRDS' NESTS 



in the most simple manner. Then we have to con- 

 sider the equally crude nest-forms of the Penguins 

 (Impennes), a small order of birds numbering upwards 

 of twenty species, confined to the Southern Hemi- 

 sphere. These remarkable birds breed in societies 

 or " rookeries " on rocky islands in the southern seas.^ 

 Their crude nests are either made under heaps of 

 rock, in holes or caves, or amongst the hummocks of 

 coarse vegetation, and are composed of grass and 

 leaves. Respecting the species Aptenodytes t^niata 

 breeding on Kerguelen Island, Dr Kidder writes as 

 follows {Bulletin, U.S. National Musetim, No. 2), 

 respecting a " rookery " which " is established upon 

 the seaward extremity of a high rocky ridge, running 

 nearly parallel with the trend of the shore, and abut- 

 ting upon the sea in lofty bluffs. At the foot of this 

 ridge is a little rocky cove, where the Penguins land, 

 and beyond the coast becomes precipitous, the rocks 

 rising perpendicularly some hundred or more feet. 

 Up the very steep inland slope of this hill, thickly 

 overgrown with the ' Kerguelen cabbage ' and ' tea,* 

 the Penguins have to climb, after crossing a consider- 

 able upland meadow. Numerous very distinct paths 

 have been worn by successive generations of Penguins, 

 until the defiles cut in the sod near the sea are, in 

 some cases, as much as four feet in depth. The track 

 to a Penguin rookery and their landing-place are 



^ The range of the order extends from the Galapagos Islands on 

 the Equator southwards into the Antarctic Regions. 



