Penguins[54] have been said to derive their name from the Latin _pinguis_ (fat) or the English "pin-wing," _i.e._ pinioned wing, but such nautical appellations are usually obscure. The French term them "Manchots." These birds rest on the whole metatarsus, the bill usually pointing upwards; their gait on land is ludicrous, but often fast, a vertical position being generally preserved, while they endeavour to waddle along on their toes with constant flapping of the pinions, every now and then partially losing their balance {56}and regaining it by the aid of their flippers. Several species are called Rock-hoppers, from their manner of hopping upon the boulders. They are, however, rarely seen on land, except in the breeding season, though equally gregarious at all times, swimming in "schools" and resorting in vast numbers to their "rookeries." When submerged, the wings act as paddles with alternating rotatory action, and the feet as rudders; but on the return to the surface the latter naturally become the propellers. The note is a croak, a scream, a murmuring sound, or, in the young, a whistle. The food of crustaceans, cephalopods, and other molluscs, is varied by fish or a little vegetable matter, and accompanied by a mass of pebbles, often ejected near the breeding places. The nest of grass and leaves–more rarely of twigs, pebbles, clay or rubbish, when herbage is scarce–may be in burrows, among tussocks, under stones, in caves, or in the open; the two coarse-flavoured eggs being white or greenish-white, with a variable amount of chalky incrustation. The male is said to assist in incubation, which lasts about six weeks; the parents sit very closely and feed the blind young for an exceptionally long period, by inserting their bill in that of the nestling. Pugnacious and thievish towards one another, Penguins are usually fearless on land, though, when they are irritated, the beak can inflict a very severe bite. The range extends southwards from the Galápagos round Cape Horn to the Falkland Islands, a few stragglers reaching Brazil; thence breeding stations are found eastwards in Tristan da Cunha, off the Cape of Good Hope, in the Crozets, Marion, and Amsterdam Islands, Kerguelen Land, and so on to the south of Australia and New Zealand, with the Antarctic regions as far as man has penetrated. The largest form is _Aptenodytes forsteri_, and the smallest _Spheniscus minor_, about 36 and 19 inches long respectively; the sexes are alike in colour, or the female may be a little duller and resemble the young. The bill and feet are usually reddish-brown, black or grey, but the latter may be whitish. The nestling in down is blackish- or yellowish-brown with white lower parts.