636 



CLASS AVES. 



The Cristatella of the same author is remarkable for an 

 elegant curling tuft of feathers on the forehead, with other 

 slender arched feathers behind and beneath the eye. 



The PiNGUiNs proper are placed in Latham's genus Auk. 

 Our author, as we have seen, denies them the faculty of 

 flight in toto. But in this he is contradicted by M. Tem- 

 minck, who says that it applies only to the Alca Impennis 

 (Great Auk, Lath.) and the Alca Torda ( Razor-billed Auk, 

 Lath.) flies very well, though closely shaving the surface of 

 the water. The pinguins have close relations with the fol- 

 lowing genus -Aptenodyfes, or the nianchots, which are called 

 pinguins, by Latham ; but, independently of other differences, 

 the pinguins inhabit the northern, and the manchots the 

 southern seas. 



These birds rarely quit the coasts, and unless from acci- 

 dental causes, such as squalls and hurricanes, do not appear 

 on shore except in brooding time. They have a double 

 moulting, and there is no marked difference between the sexes. 

 They nestle by troops in the holes of rocks, and lay but a 

 single egg. 



The Common Pinguin of our author. Razor-billed Auk, 

 Lath., is an inhabitant of the Arctic Seas of both worlds, and 

 in winter is a bird of passage on the coasts of England, Nor- 

 way, Holland, and France, and is accidentally seen on some 

 inland waters. Insects, and marine Crustacea, appear to form 

 its principal aliment, as well as certain fish, especially young 

 herrings. The single egg, which the female lays in the holes 

 of rocks which border the sea, is oblong, of a yellowish white, 

 sometimes marked with small ash-coloured spots, and some- 

 times with black and brown spots of an irregular form. 



Edwards conjectures that these birds pass the winter in 

 caverns of rocks, whose aperture is submerged, but whose 

 interior is sufficiently large to afford them a retreat, where 

 they remain in a state of torpor, supported by the fat with 

 which they are loaded. 



