THE PENGUIN. 
299 
poise^ using its short fin-like wings^ as well as its feet^ to 
assist it in its progress. He found that this species^ during 
the severest gale, could descend to the bottom; where, 
among beds of corallines and forests of seaweed, it paddled 
about in search of Crustacea and small fish, eating at the 
same time the fuci which grew there. The paths and 
avenues leading to the holes, or depressions, in which they 
deposit their eggs are very singular, intersecting each 
other, and the birds carefully remove every stick and stone 
which may be in the way. The young, as in all the pen- 
guins, are like little muff-bags of down, the soft plumage 
being singularly in contrast with the stiff scale-like feathers 
of the adult. 
Mr. Darwin, in his ^ Journal,^ gives some very interest- 
ing notes on the habits of a penguin common among the 
Falkland Islands, and which seems to be the Eed-footed 
Penguin {JEudyptes demersus), One day, having placed 
myself between a penguin and the water, I was much 
amused at watching its habits. It was a brave bird ; and, 
till reaching the sea, it regularly fought and drove me 
backwards. Nothing less than heavy blows would have 
stopped him ; every inch gained he firmly kept, standing 
close before me, erect and determined. When thus opposed. 
