1609.—"Nous trouvâmes beaucoup de Chiẽs de Mer, et Oyseaux qu'on appelle Penguyns, dont l'Escueil en estait quasi couvert."—Houtman, p. 4.
c. 1610.—"... le reste est tout couvert ... d'vne quantité d'Oyseaux nommez pinguy, qui font là leurs oeufs et leurs petits, et il y en a une quantité si prodigieuse qu'on ne sçauroit mettre ... le pied en quelque endroit que ce soit sans toucher."—Pyrard de Laval, i. 73; [Hak. Soc. i. 97, also see i. 16].
1612.—"About the year CIↃ. C.LXX. Madoc brother to David ap Owen, prince of Wales, made this sea voyage (to Florida); and by probability these names of Capo de Briton in Norumbeg, and Pengwin in part of the Northern America, for a white rock, and a white-headed bird, according to the British, were relicks of this discovery."—Selden, Notes on Drayton's Polyolbion, in Works (ed. 1726), iii. col. 1802.
1616.—"The Island called Pen-guin Island, probably so named by some Welshman, in whose Language Pen-guin signifies a white head; and there are many great lazy fowls upon, and about, this Island, with great cole-black bodies, and very white heads, called Penguins."—Terry, ed. 1665, p. 334.
1638.—"... that this people (of the Mexican traditions) were Welsh rather than Spaniards or others, the Records of this Voyage writ by many Bardhs and Genealogists confirme it ... made more orthodoxall by Welsh names given there to birds, rivers, rocks, beasts, &c., as ... Pengwyn, refer'd by them to a bird that has a white head...."—Herbert, Some Yeares Travels, &c., p. 360.
Unfortunately for this etymology the head is precisely that part which seems in all species of the bird to be black! But M. Roulin, quoted by Littré, maintains the Welsh (or Breton) etymology, thinking the name was first given to some short-winged sea-bird with a white head, and then transferred to the penguin. And Terry, if to be depended on, supports this view. [So Prof. Skeat (Concise Dict., s.v.): "In that case, it must first have been given to another bird, such as the auk (the puffin is common in Anglesey), since the penguin's head is black.">[
1674.—
"So Horses they affirm to be
Mere Engines made by Geometry,
And were invented first from Engins,