78 
DIVING BIRDS AT THE ZOO 
catching fish in deep water far below the surface. 
Cormorants, for instance, have been taken in crab-pots 
set at a depth of 1 20 feet ; penguins are found miles 
out at sea, though they generally return to the 
“ rookery ” at night ; and puffins and guillemots 
also fish during the whole of the hours of daylight 
away from the coast, in deep water. The “ darters ” 
are inhabitants of American and African lakes. At 
the present time there is an unusually large collection 
of all these species in the Zoological Gardens. The 
most amusing and probably the best performers under 
water are the small black-footed penguins. These 
have for neighbours a young puffin, a couple of pairs 
of guillemots, and a rare and beautiful cormorant, in 
shape like the English bird, but with a white breast 
and large sapphire-blue eyes ; opposite these live a 
pair of “ darters.” Except the puffin, none of these 
birds in the least resemble the penguins, which, as a 
glance shows, are strangely altered from the usual 
bird shape for some particular purpose. The pen- 
guin has a large, round, intelligent head, a deep, 
boat-shaped bill, and short neck. It cannot fly — in 
the air — it cannot walk, but hops as if its feet were 
tied together ; it cannot even swim. Submarine flight 
is its only form of motion — it is a winged seal. The 
darters, on the other hand, have long, snake-like 
necks, beaks like a wooden spit, heads only large 
enough to support the bill and to hold a pair of eyes, 
no brains to speak of, long, narrow, sparsely-feathered 
wings and tail, and strong webbed feet. As they 
