SEA-BIRDS.
Flamingo.
Their vast Numbers.—Strand-Birds.—Artifices of the Sea-Lark to protect its Young.—Migrations of the Strand-Birds.—The Sea-Birds in General.—The Anatidæ.—The Eider Duck.—The Sheldrake.—The Loggerheaded Duck.—Auks and Penguins.—The Cormorant.—Its Use by the Chinese for Fish catching.—The Frigate Bird.—The Soland Goose.—The Gulls.—The Petrels.—The Albatross.—Bird-catching on St. Kilda.—The Guano of the Chincha Islands.
Countless are the birds of the wood and field, of the mountain and the plain; and yet it is doubtful whether they equal in number those of the fish-teeming seas. For every naked rock or surf-beaten cliff that rises over the immeasurable deserts of ocean, is the refuge of myriads of sea-birds; every coast, from the poles to the equator, is covered with their legions and far from land, their swarms hover over the solitudes of the deep. Many, unfit for swimming, seek their food along the shores; others rival the fishes in their own native element; and others, again, armed with indefatigable wings, pursue their prey upon the high seas. But, however different the mode of living and destination of the numerous tribes, families, genera, and species of the sea-birds may be, each of them is organised in the most perfect manner for the exigencies of its own peculiar sphere. Take, for instance, the Strand-birds, that live on the margin of ocean, and feast upon the molluscs and sea-worms, that inhabit the littoral zone. How admirably the light weight of their proportionally small body suits the soft, yielding soil on which they have to seek their food; how well their long legs are adapted for striding through the mud of the shallow waters; and their long bill and flexible neck, how beautifully formed for seizing their fugitive prey, ere it can bury itself deep enough in the safe mud or sand!
PENGUINS ON THE SOUTH POLAR ICE.
A scene showing the immense droves of penguins which often clothe the sea edges of the ice and rocks in the South Polar regions is represented in the annexed plate.
The individuals in the front are of the large species known as the Great Penguin, Aptenodytes Forsteri. Beyond is a group of the lesser, but perhaps more beautiful, species, Aptenodytes Pennantii.
In the distance are seen lines of another small kind, which has been made a separate genus, under the denomination of Eudyptes. It is inferior in characteristic beauty to either of the last named. Eudyptes antipodes is, however, worthy of a better representation than the dimensions of our plate permitted.
