THE PENGUINS. 
295 
now come to the true Penguins {Spheniscina) , which have 
received the name from the Cape Penguin {Spheniscus 
demersus) . 
The Penguins are most comical-looking birds^ having 
plumeless appendages in place of wings, covered with small 
scale-like feathers ; their legs are thick, and placed so far 
back that, when the birds rest on their toes, the bodies are 
nearly upright. They have a small hind toe directed in- 
wards, and their three front toes are connected by an entire 
membrane. Unlike the aquatic birds of the northern re- 
gions, which can fly from the water direct to the rocky 
ridges, often parallel with the surface of the sea, where their 
eggs or young are placed, the penguins of the southern seas 
require to select rocks or ledges of rocks sloping towards 
the sea, up which they have to trail. 
Mr. M^Cormick, surgeon of H.M.S. Erebus, describes 
the penguins of Possession Island as being in such count- 
less multitudes, that it w^as with difficulty his party suc- 
ceeded in making their way through them. The penguins 
were at the time (January, 1841) busily engaged rearing 
their young, and their clamour baffled description : the 
young birds were covered with down. Sir James Clarke 
Ross thus describes Possession Island : — We saw not the 
