682 AVES—PENGUIN. 
As the wings of the penguin tribe are unfitted for flight, the legs are still 
more awkwardly adapted for walking. This whole tribe have all above the 
knee hia within the belly; and nothing appears but two short legs, or feet, 
as some would call them, that seem stuck under the rump, and upon which 
the animal 1s very awkwardly supported. They seem, when sitting, o2 
attempt‘ng to walk, like a dog that has been taught to sit up, or to move a 
minuet. Their short legs drive the body in progression from side to side; 
and were they not assisted by their wings, they could scarcely move faster 
than a tortoise. 
This awkward position of the legs, which so disqualifies them for living 
upon land, adapts them admirably for a residence in water; in that, the 
legs, placed behind the moving body, push it forward with greater velocity ; 
and these birds, like Indian canoes, are the swiftest in the water, by having 
their paddles in the rear. 
They are also covered more warmly all over the body with feathers, than 
any other birds whatever; so that the sea seems entirely their element. 
THE PATAG OMIAN LEG. TN 
Welcus about forty pounds, and is four feet three inches in length. The 
bill measures four inches and a half, but is slender, The head, throat, and 
hind part of the neck, are brown; the back of a deep ash color; and all the 
under parts white. The Magellanic penguin is about the size of a goose ; 
the upper parts of the plumage are black, and the under white. These birds 
walk erect, with their heads on high, their fin-like wings hanging down like 
arms; so that to see them ata distance, they look like so many children 
with white aprons. Hence they are said to unwe in themselves the qualities 
of men, fowls, and fishes. Like men, they are upright; like fowls, they 
are feathered ; and, like fishes, they have fin-like instruments, that beat the 
water before, and serve for all the purposes of swimming rather than flying. 
ORDER XVI.—INERTES. 
Birps of this order have the bill of different forms; body probably thick, 
covered with down, and feathers with distant webs; legs placed much 
behind; tarsus short; three toes before, divided to the base ; hind toe short 
1 Aptenodytes Patachonica, Laru. The genus Aptenodytes has the bill longer than the 
head, slender, straight, inflected at the tip; upper mandible furrowed throughout its 
whole length, the under wider at the base, and covered with a naked and smooth skin; 
nostrils in the upper Pee of the bill concealed by the feathers of the forehead, .egs ver 
short, thick, placed far behind; four toes directed forward, three of which are webbed, 
and the fo mh very short; wings incapable of flight. 
