570 P I N G U I N. 



Place amb This inhabits the Straits of Magelhaen, Staateri Land, Terra del 



Manners. 



Fuego, and Falkland IJles, and is a very numerous fpecies ; often feen 

 by thoufands, retiring of nights to the higheft parts of the iflands 

 to pafs the night. The voice not unlike the braying of an Afs. 

 Is not a timid bird, for it will fcarcely get out of the way of any 

 one ; but, inftead of it, will frequently attack and bite a perfon by 

 the legs fo as to fetch blood. Thefe were killed by the failors 

 of Capt. Cook's, fbips by hundreds, with flicks, and were found not 

 unpalatable as food, though thought to have a mufky tafte : the 

 way they were liked befl was in a ragout. They often mix with 

 the Sea Wolves, among the rufhes, burrowing in holes like a Fox. 

 "When they fwim, only the neck and fhoulders appear out of the 

 water, and they advance with fuch agility, that no fifa feems able 

 to follow them : if they meet with any obftacle, leap four or 

 five feet out of the water, and dipping into it again, continue 

 their route. 



This is probably the fpecies that Penrofe alludes to, of which 

 he fays, the chief curiofity is the laying their eggs ; this they do 

 in collective bodies, reforting in incredible numbers to certain 

 fpots, which their long refidence has freed from grafs, and to 

 which were given the name of towns *. " Here," fays he, 

 " during the breeding feafon, we were prefented with a fight 

 which conveyed a moft dreary, and I may fay awful idea of the 

 defertion of thefe iflands by the human fpecies : — a general flill- 

 nefs prevailed in thefe towns j and whenever we took our walks 



* He obferves, that they compofed the nefts of mud, a foot in height, and 

 placed as near one another as may be. — It is poffible that they may have dif- 

 ferent ways of netting, ^according to the places they inhabit ; or perhaps the 

 manners of this may be blended with thofe of another. 



among 



