a lilac tint; the under portion of the
purest white imaginable. The head is of a glossy and most brilliant
black, the feet also. The chief beauty of plumage, however, consists in
two broad stripes of a gold color, which pass along from the head to the
breast. The bill is long, and either pink or bright scarlet. These birds
walk erect; with a stately carriage. They carry their heads high with
their wings drooping like two arms, and, as their tails project from
their body in a line with the legs, the resemblance to a human figure
is very striking, and would be apt to deceive the spectator at a casual
glance or in the gloom of the evening. The royal penguins which we met
with on Kerguelen's Land were rather larger than a goose. The other
kinds are the macaroni, the jackass, and the rookery penguin. These
are much smaller, less beautiful in plumage, and different in other
respects.

Besides the penguin many other birds are here to be found, among which
may be mentioned sea-hens, blue peterels, teal, ducks, Port Egmont hens,
shags, Cape pigeons, the nelly, sea swallows, terns, sea gulls, Mother
Carey's chickens, Mother Carey's geese, or the great peterel, and,
lastly, the albatross.

The great peterel is as large as the common albatross, and is
carnivorous. It is frequently called the break-bones, or osprey peterel.
They are not at all shy, and, when properly cooked, are palatable food.
In flying they sometimes sail very close to the surface of the water,
with the wings expanded, without appearing to move them in the least
degree, or make any exertion with them whatever.

The albatross is one of the largest and fiercest of the South Sea birds.
It is of the gull species, and takes its prey on the wing, never coming
on land except for the purpose of breeding. Between this bird and the
penguin the most singular friendship exists. Their nests are
constructed with great uniformity upon a plan concerted between the two
species--that of the albatross being placed in the centre of a little
square formed by the nests of four penguins. Navigators have agreed in
calling an assemblage of such encampments a rookery. These rookeries
have been often described, but as my readers may not all have seen these
descriptions, and as I shall have occasion hereafter to speak of the
penguin and albatross, it will not be amiss to say something here of
their mode of building and living.

When the season for incubation arrives, the birds assemble i