THE PENGUIN. 263 



Supposed stupidity accounted for. 



fnl enemy, they continue to sit brooding; and 

 even when man comes among them, have at 

 least no apprehension of their danger. " But it 

 is not considered/' observes a judicious writer, 

 " that these birds have never been taught to 

 know the dangers of an human enemy; it is 

 against the fox or the vulture that they have 

 learned to defend themselves ; but they have no 

 idea of injury from a being so very unlike their 

 natural opposers. The penguins, therefore, when 

 our seamen first came amongst them, tamely suf- 

 fered themselves to be knocked on the head, 

 without even attempting an escape. They have 

 stood to be shot at in flocks, without offering to 

 move, in silent wonder, till every one of their 

 number has been destroyed. Their attachment 

 to their nests was still more powerful; for the 

 females tamely suffered the men to approach 

 and take their eggs, without any resistance. 

 But the experience of a few of these unfriendly 

 visits, has long since taught them to be more 

 upon their guard in chusing their situations; or 

 to leave those retreats where they were so little 

 able to oppose their invaders." 



The penguin lays but one egg; and, in fre- 

 quented shores is found to burrow like a rabbit: 

 sometimes three or four take possession of one 

 hole, and hatch their young together. In the 

 holes of the rocks, where nature has made them 

 a retreat, several of this tribe, as Linnseus assures 

 us, are seen together. There the females lay 



