ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 
59 
and Newfoundland, while it does not appear in any of the lists 
referring to the region south of Massachusetts. Captain Bartholo- 
mew Gosnold, in 1602, found “ Pengwins ” on the Massachusetts 
coast at what he calls Gilbert’s Point,” in latitude 41° 40^ He 
says : “ The twentieth, by the ships side we there killed Pengwins 
and saw many sculls of fish.” ^ The locality, as shown by the 
context, was between the southeastern point of Cape Cod and 
Nantucket Island, probably a few miles south of Egg Island. What 
the bird called “ Pengwin ” was, that was so often referred to by 
the early explorers of the New England coast, is clearly evident 
from the following ; Richard Whitbourne, in his account of his 
voyage to Newfoundland, in 1618, says, “These Penguins are as 
bigge as Geese, and flie not, for they have but little short wings, 
& they multiply so infinitely, upon a certaine flat Island [Sable 
Island], that men drive them from thence upon a boord into their 
Boates by hundreds at a time ; as if God had made the innocencie 
of so poore a creature to become sucli an admirable instrument for 
the sustentation of man.”+ The same bird is also referred to by 
Josselyn as the “Wobble.” He says : “The Wobble, an ill shaped 
Fowl, having no long Feathers in their Pinions, w^hich is the reason 
they cannot fly, not much unlike the Pengwin; they are in the 
Spring very fat, or rather oyly, but pull’d and garbidgd, and laid 
to the Fire to roast, they yield not one drop.” $ 
This bird, so valuable as a “commodity,” and whose “innocencie ” 
rendered its capture so easy, doubtless did not long survive on the 
coast of New England after the establishment here of permanent 
settlements. 
Much might be added, did space allow, respecting the forme^r 
abundance of Ducks, Geese, Sandpipers, and Plovers. A few ex- 
tracts on this point from Morton, in his own quaint language, must 
here suffice. “ There are Geese,” he says, “ of three sorts vize 
brant Geese, which are pide, and white Geese which are bigger, and 
gray Geese which are as bigg and bigger, then the tame Geese 
of England, with black legges, black bills, heads, and necks black ; 
the flesh farre more excellent, then the Geese of England, wilde or 
tame There is of them great abundance. I have had often 
1000 before the mouth of my gunne .... the fethers of the 
* Purchas’s Pilgrims, Vol. IV, p. 1648. 
! + Ib., Vol. IV, p. 1886. 
i New Englands Rarities, p. 11. 
