Captain Fitzroy describes, at Noir Island, multitudes of Penguins
swarming among the bushes and tussac-grass near the shore, for moulting
and rearing their young. They were very valiant in self-defence, and
ran open-mouthed by dozens at any one who invaded their territory. The
manner of feeding their young is amusing. The old bird gets on a little
eminence and makes a loud noise, between quacking and braying, holding
its head up as if haranguing the Penguinnery, the young one standing
close to it, but a little lower. The old bird then puts down its head,
and opens its mouth widely, into which the young one thrusts its head,
and then appears to suck from the throat of its mother; after which the
clatter is repeated, and the young one is again fed: this continues for
about ten minutes.
Mr. Darwin, having placed himself between a Penguin, on the Falkland
Islands, and the water, was much amused by watching its habits. "It
was a brown bird," says Mr. Darwin, "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, he continually
rolled his head from side to side in a very odd manner. While at sea,
and undisturbed, this bird's note is very deep and solemn, and is often
heard in the night time. In diving, its little plumeless wings are used
as fins, but on the land as front legs. When crawling (it may be said
on four legs) through the tussacks, or on the side of a grassy cliff,
it moved so very quickly that it might readily have been mistaken
for a quadruped. When at sea, and fishing, it comes to the surface
for the purpose of breathing with such a spring, and dives again so
instantaneously, that I defy any one, at first sight, to be sure that it
is not a fish leaping for sport."
Bougainville endeavoured to bring home a Penguin alive. It became so
tame that it followed the person who fed it; it ate bread, flesh, or
fish; but it fell away and died. The four-footed Duck of Gesner might
have owed its origin to an ill-preserved Penguin. The notion of its
being four-footed might have been fortified by some voyager who had seen
the bird making progress as Mr. Darwin has above described.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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