CLASS IL AYES: ORDER 8. NATATORES, 



331 



liabits the northern seas. It has the various popuhir names ot' Dove Kic, Sca-Uorc, Sea-Pigeon, 

 Greenland Dove, Pigeon-Diver, and Ice-Bird. 



The Perroquet Auk, A. j^siitacula, is eleven inclies loDg, and abounds along the ooast of 

 Kamtschatka. It is said that they are so little suspicious, that the natives place a dress with 

 large sleeves near their holes, into which the birds run, mistaking them for their burrows, and 

 are thus entrapped. This and the preceding fly, dive, and swim with facility. 



The Penguins — Manchots of the French — resemble the auks, but the feathers of their wings are 

 rudimentary, and covered with skin, so that they are like fins. These are very useful in swim- 

 ming, but do not enable the birds to fly. There are several species, abounding in the Antarctic 

 Seas, where they pass the greater poi'tion of their time in the water, and appear rarely to stay 

 any time on land, except during the breeding season. In the water they are exceedingly active, 

 swimming and diving with the greatest fecility, and making use of their little naked wings as fins, 

 when engaged in the latter operation. When in motion on land, however, they employ these in 

 place of an anterior pair of legs ; and by their assistance contrive to scuttle along so rapidly that 

 when they are in motion among the tussocks of grass, they might readily be mistaken for quad- 

 rupeds. They do not appear to have very acute sensations; Sparman tells us that he stumbled 

 over a sleeping one and kicked it several yards without disturbing its rest. Forster says that he 

 left several of them apparently lifeless while he went in pursuit of others, but they afterward got 

 up and marched off with their usual gravity. They hatch their eggs by holding them between 

 their thighs, and when threatened with danger, move away, still retaining them in this position. 

 During the period of incubation the male fishes for the female, and after the young are hatched 

 both parents are engaged for a time in procuring their food. 



Genus E^UDYPTES : Eudypte.s. — This includes the Crested Penguin, E. chnjsocome — the 



Manchot Sauteur oi^nfion — size of a duck; 

 it has a tuft of sulphur-colored feathers on 

 the sides of its head. It leaps four or five 

 feet out of water and then falls upon its 

 prey. This is the Gorfou Sauteur of Le 

 Maout; found in the Antarctic Seas. 



Genus APTENODYTES : Aptenodytcs, 

 includes the Jackass Penguin, A. demersa, 

 ,, . ,,^ of which Mr. Darwin gives the following 



'/ '•■;i5l;lM pleasant account, the scene of the adventure 

 ' ''■'"' ' beingtheFalklandlslands, where these birds 

 abound: "One day, having placed myself 

 between one of these penguins and the 

 water, I was much amused by watching its 

 habits. It was a brave bird, and, till reach- 

 ing the sea, it regularly fought and drove 

 me backward. Nothing less than heavy 

 blows would have stopped liim ; every incli 



^^^^^4 gained he firmly kept, standing close before 

 me, erect and determined. When thus op- 

 posed, he continually rolled his head from 

 side to side, in a very odd manner, as if the 

 power of vision only lay in the anterior and 

 basal part of each eye. This bird is com- 

 monly called the Jackass Penguin, from its 

 babity while on shore, of throwing its head 

 backward, and making a loud, strange noise, 

 very like the braying of that animal ; but while at sea and undisturbed, its note is very deep and 

 solemn, and is often heard in the night-time. In diving, its little plumeless wings arc used as fins ; 

 but on the land as front-legs. When crawling — it may be said on four legs — through the tus- 



THE JACKASS PENGUIN. 



