age 
PALMIPEDES. 407 
beneath; a white line on the wing and one or two on the bill. 
The throat of the male is black, and there is a white line reach- 
ing from the eye to the bill. Its size is that of a duck. 
Alca impennis, L.; Le Grand Pingouin, Buff. 1X, xxix; Enl. 
367. (The Great Auk.) Nearly as large as a Goose, the colours 
very similar to those of the preceding species; but the bill is 
entirely black and marked with eight or ten grooves, and there 
is a white oval spot between the bill and the eye: its wings are 
shorter in proportion than those of any other species of this 
genus. It is said to lay but one large egg, spotted with purple. 
t 
. | APTENODYTES, Forst. 
The Penguins are even less capable of flying than the Auks. Their 
little wings are covered with mere vestiges of feathers, which at the 
first glance resemble scales; their feet, placed farther behind than 
those of any other bird, only support them by bearing on the tarsus, 
» which is widened like the sole of the foot of a quadruped, and in 
which are found three bones soldered together at their extremities. 
| They have a small thumb directed inwards, and their three anterior 
toes are united by an entire membrane. They are only found in 
the Antarctic Seas, never going on shore except to breed. They 
can only reach their nests by drawing themselves along on their 
bellies. The difference in their bill authorizes their division into 
three subgenera. 
APpTENoDYTES, Cuv. 
A long, slender, and pointed bill; the upper mandible a little 
arcuated near the end; covered with feathers to one-third of its 
length where the nostril is placed, from which a groove extends to 
the point. 
Apt. patagonica, Gm.; Le Grand Manchot, Enl. 975. (The 
Great Penguin.) Is the size of a Goose, slate-coloured above, 
white beneath; a black mask surrounded with a lemon-coloured 
cravatte. Found in large troops near the straits of Magellan, 
and as far as New Guinea. The flesh, though black, is eatable. 
i CaTaRRHACTES, Briss. 
The Gorfus(1) have the bill stout, but little compressed, pointed, 
rounded on the back, and its point somewhat arcuated; the groove 
(1) Gorfu, a corruption of goir fugel, the name of the Great Auk in the Feroe 
Islands. See Clusius, Exot., 367. Catarrhactes is the Greek name of a very dif- 
ferent bird, which could fly well, and precipitated itself from a height on its prey. 
It was most probably a species of Gull. 
