268 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Tenacious of life Sound sleepers !Nests. 



They are very tenacious of life. Mr. Forster 

 left a great number of them apparently lifeless 

 from the blows they had received, while he went 

 in pursuit of others; but they all afterwards got 

 up and marched off with the utmost gravity. 



Their sleep is extremely sound: for Dr. Sparr- 

 man accidentally stumbling over one of them, 

 kicked it several yards without disturbing its 

 rest; nor was it till after being repeatedly shaken 

 that the bird awoke. 



The crested penguins form their nests among 

 those of the birds of the pelican tribe, and live 

 in tolerable harmony with them. The female 

 generally lays only a single egg. Their nests are 

 holes in the earth ; which they easily form with 

 their bills, throwing back the dirt with their feet. 

 They are often found in great numbers on the 

 shores where they have been bred. 



Penrose, in his (e Account of an Expedition 

 to the Falkland Islands in 1772," mentions a spe- 

 cies of penguin that resorts to certain places of 

 these islands in incredible numbers, and lays its 

 eggs. These places, he says, had become by its 

 long residence entirely freed from grass ; and he 

 has given to them the name of towns. The nests 

 were composed of mud; raised into hillocks, 

 about a foot high, and placed close to each other. 

 " Here/' he adds, " during the breeding season, 

 we were presented with a sight that conveyed a 

 most dreary, and, I may say, awful idea of the 

 desertion of the islands by the human species : 



