Description.—Above dirty brown, varied with blackish; wings cinereous with white tips to some of the secondaries: beneath white, sprinkled with greyish on the breast and sides; chin and throat black; bill short, compressed, plumbeous, crossed by a black band; feet black: whole length 12·0 inches, wing 5·0, tail 1·0. Female similar.
Hab. North and South America.
The Thick-billed Grebe extends all through America, from Canada down to Patagonia and Chili. It does not seem to have been noticed in the Argentine Republic except by Mr. Withington, who sends us a single specimen from the Lomas de Zamora, near Buenos Ayres.
A second and larger species of this genus (P. antarcticus) occurs on the western side of America from Guatemala to Chili.
[Order XVIII. IMPENNES.]
[ Fam. LII. APTENODYTIDÆ, or PENGUINS.]
The Penguins are a peculiar group of oceanic birds which differ essentially from all other birds in the construction of their wings and feet, and should certainly form an Order apart. They are denizens of the Antarctic sea-shores and islands, but in the Pacific go as far north as the Galapagos. On the shores and islands of South America nine species occur, one of which has been met with within our limits.
[424.] SPHENISCUS MAGELLANICUS (Forst.).
(JACKASS PENGUIN.)
Spheniscus magellanicus, Scl. et Salv. Nomencl. p. 151; Scl. Zool. Chall. Exp. pt. viii. (Birds), p. 125, pl. xxviii. Aptenodytes demersa, Abbott, Ibis, 1860, p. 336.