PENGUINS AND MANCHOTS. 219 



guarded by sentinels. They afterwards divide the enclosure into 

 smaller squares, each large enough to receive a certain number of 

 nests, with a passage between each square. No architect could 

 arrange the plan in a more regular manner. 



What is most singular is that the Albatross, a bird essentially 

 aerial, and adapted for flight, associates at this period with 

 these half fish, half birds, the Penguins ; so that the nest of an 

 Albatross may be seen next the nest of a Penguin, and the 

 whole colony, so differently constituted, appear to live on the best 

 terms of intimacy. Each keeps to its own nest, and if by chance 

 there is a complaint, it is that some Penguin (probably the king 

 Penguin, for he is generally the greatest thief) has robbed the 

 nest of his neighbour, the Albatross. 



Other sea-birds come to partake of the hospitality of the little 

 republic. With the permission of the masters of the coterie they 

 build their nests in the vacancies that occur in the squares. 



The female Penguin lays but one egg, which she only abandons 

 until hatched for a few instants, the male taking her place while she 

 seeks her food. The Penguins are so numerous in the Antarctic 

 seas that a hundred thousand eggs have been collected by the 

 crew of one vessel. 



The Manchots (Fig. 82) have been described by most of the 

 French naturalists as a distinct species, but there is little doubt of 

 their being only a variety of the Aptenodytes. They abound in the 

 southern seas. Their short, stunted wings, which quite incapa- 

 citate them from flying, are reduced to a flat and very short stump, 

 totally destitute of feathers, being covered with a soft down, having 

 something of the appearance of hair, which might be taken for 

 scales. Like the Penguin, the Manchots are excellent swimmers 

 and incomparable divers, and their coating of down is so dense 

 that it even resists a bullet ; it is consequently difficult to shoot 

 them. 



Everything about these birds indicates their adaptation to an 

 aquatic life. Their feet are placed at the extremity of the body 

 an arrangement that renders them awkward and heavy when 

 ashore ; where, in short, they only come to lay and hatch their eggs. 

 They begin to assemble in great numbers at the commencement 

 of October. Their nests are a very simple construction ; for they 



