BIRDS. 377 



Irish coasts, and has occasionally been met with in summer. 

 Like the Gannet, it is sometimes entangled in the nets of the 

 fisherman; and Mr. W. Thompson has related to us one 

 instance in which a Diver, when thus taken, was found to 

 have swallowed a hook, having doubtless been attracted by 

 the tempting appearance of the fish-bait. 



Alcidce. The Guillemots resemble in many respects 

 the Divers. We pass them by to notice the Puffin (Alca 

 arctica), a bird common round our coasts during the summer 

 months. Its most striking 

 peculiarity is the bill, which 

 has gained for it the titles of 

 " Sea-parrot," and "Coulter- 

 neb.'' To this family belongs 

 the Penguin (Fig. 282), whose 

 singular plumage has been 

 already noticed (ante, p. 303). 

 The wings, so powerless for 

 flight, are, however, most effi- 

 cient as fins. When at sea 

 and fishing, it comes to the 

 surface, for the purpose of 

 breathing, with such a spring, 

 and dives again so instanta- 

 neously, that no one could at first sight be sure it was not a fish 

 leaping for sport.* The Penguin is not deficient in courage. 

 At one of the Falkland Islands, Mr. Darwin placed himself 

 between one of these birds (Aptinodytes demersa) and the 

 water. " It was," says he, " a brave bird; and till reaching 

 the sea, it regularly fought and drove me backwards.! 

 Similar intrepidity was evinced by some Penguins met with 

 by Captain Ross in the late Antarctic expedition. The birds, 

 from their great size, were named the "king" and the 

 emperor," for there were two species. But both, however, 

 evinced equal hardihood, and showed their determination to 

 do battle for their land of nativity, even when oppposed to 

 British seamen. 



Pelecanidce. The name of this family implies that it 

 may be represented by the Pelican. We have but three 

 native species, of which the most common is the Solan Goose 



* Darwin's Journal, p. 257. 

 f Idem, p. 256. 



