CHAPTER XV 



THE PENGUINS 



(Order Sphenisciformes) 



| T first sight it might seem that the Penguins were quite closely related 

 to the Auks and their allies, since they have approximately the same 

 shape and much the same habits of life ; but the more closely the Pen- 

 guins are studied the clearer become the differences, and it is soon seen 

 that the resemblance is hardly more than accidental or superficial; in fact, taking 

 everything into account, the Penguins constitute one of the most distinct and re- 

 markable groups into which birds are divided. They are flightless birds, of mod- 

 erate or large size, confined exclusively to the Antarctic region, where they occupy 

 in a measure the position filled in the opposite hemisphere by the Auks and their 

 immediate relatives. The wings are reduced in size and modified by the flat- 

 tening and consolidation of the bones until the product is a perfect swimming 

 paddle, for which purpose they are exclusively used. These birds are expert 

 swimmers and divers, but unlike most other aquatic birds, they make no use of 

 the feet in swimming beyond employing them as a rudder. The wings, or "flip- 

 pers," as they might perhaps be called, are moved alternately, thus producing 

 a screw motion, and the appearance of the birds in the water is little short of 

 marvelous. 



Moseley, the naturalist of the Challenger expedition, who mistook them at first 

 for small porpoises or dolphins, says: " They came along in a shoal of fifty or 

 more, from seawards toward the shore at a rapid 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 marvelous 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, for such they w^re." 



Anatomy. The bones of the wing, as might be expected from the altered 

 function of this organ, show very great modifications. The shoulder-blade 

 (scapula) is of enormous size and affords attachment for the powerful muscles 

 of the shoulder joint. The coracoid bone is also of great strength. The other 

 bones of the wing are much compressed laterally and are more or less fused or 

 anchylosed until there is relatively little freedom of motion between them. The 

 shoulder joint is as perfect in Penguins as in other birds, but the remaining por- 

 tions of the wing are so arranged as to "almost entirely exclude those movements 

 of flexion and extension which are essential to an organ of flight," and it is moved 



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