Other sea-birds come to partake of the hospitality of the little republic. With the permission of the masters of the coterie they build their nests in the vacancies that occur in the squares. The female Penguin lays but one egg, which she only abandons until hatched for a few instants, the male taking her place while she seeks her food. The Penguins are so numerous in the Antarctic seas that a hundred thousand eggs have been collected by the crew of one vessel. The Manchots (Fig. 82) have been described by most of the French naturalists as a distinct species, but there is little doubt of their being only a variety of the Aptenodytes. They abound in the southern seas. Their short, stunted wings, which quite incapacitate them from flying, are reduced to a flat and very short stump, totally destitute of feathers, being covered with a soft down, having something of the appearance of hair, which might be taken for scales. Like the Penguin, the Manchots are excellent swimmers and incomparable divers, and their coating of down is so dense that it even resists a bullet; it is consequently difficult to shoot them. Everything about these birds indicates their adaptation to an aquatic life. Their feet are placed at the extremity of the body--an arrangement that renders them awkward and heavy when ashore; where, in short, they only come to lay and hatch their eggs. They begin to assemble in great numbers at the commencement of October. Their nests are a very simple construction; for they content themselves with digging in the sand a hole deep enough to contain two eggs--but more often one than two. [Illustration: Fig. 82.--The Manchot (_A. Patachonica_).] In spite of the limited number of eggs, the quantity of these birds found in the south of Patagonia is something prodigious. When sailors land in these high latitudes they take or kill as many as they choose. Sir John Narborough says, speaking of those at the Falkland Islands, that "when the sailors walked among the feathered population to provide themselves with eggs, they were regarded with sidelong glances." In many places the shores were covered with these birds, and three hundred have been taken within an hour; for generally they make no effort to escape, but stand quietly by while their companions are being knocked down with sticks. In another islet, in the Straits of Magellan, Captain Drake's crew killed more than three thousand in one day. These facts are not exaggerated. This island, when visited by these navigators, was, so to speak, virgin; and the birds had succeeded each other from generation to generation in incalculable numbers, hitherto free from molestation.