154 BIRDS OF TIIOKRA DEL FUEGO 



them larf^ely — if not wholly on occasion — with the means of 

 subsistence. 



It is everywhere common in these waters; but I was never 

 so fortunate as to see with my own eyes one of their wonderful 

 colonies. 



Forster, who accompanied Cook in the " Resolution " in 

 1774, was the first to give this Penguin its scientific name. Of its 

 habits he says : — " In Insula Novi Anni, Insular Statuum vicina, 

 multa millia hujus speciei vidimus e mari escendere et loca altiora 

 insulae petere, ubi satura e piscatu marino, quem gregatim insti- 

 tuunt, inter cespites dactylidis glomerata3 victitant, dormiunt, et 

 nidulantur post Pelecanos et Diomedeas. Vox rauca, clangens, et 

 etiam crotali instar crepitans, fere asina. Homines et phocas 

 non metuunt, eisque vix de via decedmit ; et si evadere homines 

 nequeunt, tum caput horsum vorsum in utrumque latus, quasi 

 mirabundte, torquent et subito vehementissimo morsu pedes 

 appropinquantium appetunt. Aliquot centum a nautis nostris 

 fustibus necata, in navem avecta, excoriataque, omnibus elixa 

 assataque in cibum cessere, nil minus quam ingratum." 



Cook himself mentions meeting with " prodigious numbers." 

 He adds: — "I cannot say they are good eating. I have indeed 

 made several good meals of them ; but it was for want of better 

 victuals." 



As early as 1578, Sir Francis Drake, at the time of his 

 naming Elizabeth Island, mentions finding on two smaller islands 

 near it, one of which was subsequently named Penguin Island 

 and is now known as Santa Magdalena, " great store of strange 

 birds which could not flie at all, nor yet runne so fast as that 

 they could escape us with their Hues ; in body they are less than 

 a Goose, and bigger than a Mallard, short and thicke sett together, 

 hauing no feathers, but instead thereof a certaine hard and matted 

 downe ; their beakes are not much vnlike the bills of Crowes, 

 they lodge and breed vpon the land, where making earthes. 

 as the Conies doe, in the ground, they lay their egges and 

 bring up their 3'oung ; their feeding and provision to live on 



