THE ANTARCTIC OCEAN. 



895 



on its head. Such is its voracity that it does not even spare its own kind, for 

 a gigantic petrel having been badly wounded by a shot from the " Terror," 

 and falling at too great a distance for a boat to be sent after it, was immediate- 

 ly attacked by two others of the same kind and torn to pieces. It is a common 

 bird both in the open sea and in the inland channels of Tierra del Fuego, and 

 the south-west coast of America. 



The wandering albatross {Diomedea exulans), closely allied to the petrels, 

 and rivalling the condor in size and strength of wing, may truly be ranked among 

 the Antarctic birds, as it is seldom seen in a lower latitude than 36°, and in- 

 creases in numbers towards the south. Freyssinet saw it most frequently be- 

 tween 55° and 59° S. lat., and it probably knows no other limits than those of 

 the Polar ice. It is found in every meridian of this enormous zone, but the 

 regions of storms — the Cape , of Good Hope and Cape Horn — are its favorite 

 resorts. Here it may frequently be seen in the full majesty of its flight. 



The auks of the northern hemisphere are represented, in the austral regions, 

 by the penguins, who, as Buffon remarks, are the least bird-like of all birds. 

 Their small wing-stumps, covered with short rigid scale-like feathers, are alto- 

 gether incapable of raising the body in the air, but serve as admirable paddles 

 in the water, and on land as fore feet, w^ith whose help they so alertly scale the 

 grassy cliffs that they might easily be mistaken for quadrupeds. Their feet, 

 like those of the auks, are placed so far back that the body is quite upright 

 when the bird is standing on the ground, a position which renders their gait 

 imcommonly slow and awkward, but greatly facilitates their movements in the 

 water. When at sea and fishing, the penguin comes to the surface foi* the pur- 

 pose of breathing with such a spring, and dives again so instantaneously, that at 

 first sight no one can be sure that it is not a fish leaping for sport. Other sea- 

 birds generally keep a considerable part of their body out of the water while 

 swimming, but this is not the case with the penguin, whose head alone appears 

 above the surface, and thus rowing at the same time with its wings and feet, it 

 swims so quickly that many fishes would fail to keep up with it. Sir James 

 Ross once saw two penguins paddling away a thousand miles from the nearest 

 land. Protected against the cold by a thick layer of fat and a warm great-coat 

 of feathers, it remains for months on the high seas, and seeks land only in the 

 summer for the purpose of breeding. At this time it is found in vast numbers 

 on the Falkland Islands, Kerguelen's Land, New Shetland, or wherever in the 

 Antarctic Seas, perhaps even to the pole itself, a convenient coast invit?s its 

 stay. On Possession Island, for instance, a desolate rock, discovered by Sir 

 James Ross in lat. 71° 56', myriads of penguins covered the whole surface of 

 the land, along the ledges of the precipices, and even to the summit of the hills. 

 Undaunted by the presence of beings whom they had never seen before, tlie 

 birds vigorously attacked the British seamen as they waded through their 

 ranks, and pecked at them with their sharp beaks, a reception which, together 

 with their loud coarse notes, and the insupportable stench of their guano, made 

 our countrymen but too happy to depart, after having loaded their boat with 

 geological specimens and penguins. There are several species of this singular 

 bird. The largest and rarest {Aptenodytes Forsteri) is generally found sin- 



