104 THE ^ VOYAGE: PASSING IMPRESSIOXS 
salt meat, and would drink water, limejuice, and grog ! Its 
tameness and gentleness rendered it a general favourite, but 
its spotless plumage soon tui'ned gray, and then black. 
So too the common Jack penguins were easily tamed. 
At first we had about a dozen on board, running wild 
over the decks following a leader ; they cannot climb over 
any obstacle two or three inches high, so we thought them 
safe, until one day, the leader finding the hawse hole empty, 
immediately made his exit, and was followed by the rest, 
each giving a valedictory croak as he made his escape. 
[As food, the sheathbills] are tolerable eating, rather 
tough though, and they have a rank flavour and smell when 
newly killed, and require soaking before cooking, when they 
eat well in pies and mulligatawny. 
[The penguins'] flesh is black and very rich, and was much 
relished at first for stews, pies, curries, etc. ; after a day or 
two we found it too rich, ^\ath a disagreeable flavour, whence 
partly from prejudice I beheve, they were dropped, except in 
the shape of soup, which is certainly the richest I ever ate, 
much more so than hare soup, which it much resembles. 
Certain annotations in the presentation copy of Eoss's 
Voyage deserve passing mention. They unmask two pieces 
of unconscious humour on the part of Dr. McCormick, one a 
mistake, the other the fruit of a well-laid practical joke. In 
the scientific appendices, McCormick (II. 409) describes the 
Kiwi or Apteryx, that wingless bird, as seeking ' larvae and 
seeds of a rush {Astelia Banksii), its favourite food.' On the 
margin is pencilled ' grows on Ugh trees only.' And on p. 414 
he describes the nest of the albatross, which ' only lays one egg. 
In one instance only I found two eggs in the same nest (both 
of the full size, and one of them unusually elongated in its 
longest diameter), although I must have examined at least 
a hundred nests.' Indeed a puzzle, anxiously detailed ; but 
we smile at the accusing pencil, ' placed there by Oakeley,' 
the mate of the Erebus. 
