themselves till their breasts touch the ground, the male bird of each pair standing upright, alongside of the female.” In regard to another species, called the gentoo penguin, he says: “Some of their breeding-places are near the sea, and, generally, near a freshwater pond; others, however, are several miles inland. Why they should select these latter places—so far from salt water—is a mystery. The grass from the sea to the breeding-ground is trodden down and made into a kind of road by detachments of these birds, of from ten to twenty, going to the sea and returning. They make no nest, but lay in a hollow in the earth; they occupy a square piece of ground and deposit their eggs, two in number, as close to one another as they can sit. When the young birds are old enough they all go to sea, and only occasional stragglers are found on the coast at any other time of the year.” Elsewhere Captain Abbott tells us that the ground about these “rookeries” is covered with small, round stones, which these birds eject from the bill on coming up from the salt water, in green masses, about the size of a shilling. It was on the Falkland Islands that Darwin, the great naturalist and philosopher, had an experience with a penguin, of which he gives the following interesting account: “Another day, having placed myself between a penguin and the water, I was much amused by watching its habits. It was a brave bird, and, till reaching the sea, it regularly fought and drove me backwards. Nothing less than heavy blows would have stopped him; every inch he 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, as if the power of distinct vision lay only in the interior and basal part of each eye.” This bird that thus measured its strength with the celebrated philosopher, was of a kind called the jackass penguin, a name which it has received “from its habit, whilst on shore, of throwing its head backwards and making a loud, strange noise, very like the braying of an ass; but while at sea, and undisturbed, its note is very deep and solemn, and is often heard in the night-time.”