254 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Manners Patagonian penguin. 



their single egg in a common nest, and sit upon 

 this their general possession by turns ; while one 

 is placed as a sentinel, to give warning of ap- 

 proaching danger. The egg of the penguin, as 

 well as of all this tribe, is very large for the size 

 of the bird, being generally found bigger than 

 that of a goose. But as there are many varieties 

 of the penguin, and as they differ in size, from, 

 that of a muscovy duck to a swan, the eggs differ 

 in the same proportion. 



As far as it is at present known, the penguins 

 consist of about nine species, and they are com- 

 monly estimated to hold the same place in the 

 southern parts of the world as the auks do in the 

 north, neither of them having been observed 

 within the tropics. 



The one commonly denominated the Patago- 

 nian penguin, is by much the largest, some of 

 them weigh ab least forty pounds, and are four 

 feet three or four inches in length. The bill mea- 

 sures four inches and a half, but is slender. The 

 head, throat, and hind part of the neck is brown, 

 the back of a deepish ash-colour, and all the 

 tinder parts white. The best known penguin is 

 not bigger than a common goose, the upper 

 parts of whose plumage is black, and the under 

 white. 



