PENGUIN, Aptenodytes, a genus of birds of the family aleida (see Amt), or constitut ing the family aptenodida, regarded by many as a sub-family of Aleida, and divided into several genera or sub-genera. They have short wings, quite unfit for flight, but covered with short rigid scale-like feathers, admirably adapted for swimming, and much like the flippers of turtles. The legs are very short, and are placed very far back, so that on land penguins rest on the tarsus,which is widened like the sole of the foot of a quadruped, and maintain a perfectly erect posture. Their bones, unlike those of birds in general, are hard, compact, and heavy, and have no air-cavities; those of the extremities contain an oily marrow. The body is of an elliptical form; the neck of moderate length; the head small; the bill moderately long, straight, more or less compressed; the tail very short. Some of them have a long, slender, and pointed bill, the Upper mandible a little curved at the tip, and feathered for about a third of its length; some, sometimes called gorfews or gorfous (chrysocoma), have a stout and pointed bill, a little curved at the tip: some, sphenisques or spheniseans (spheniscus), have a straight and compressed bill, irregularly furrowed at the base. The penguins are all among the most aquatic birds, although they are seldom seen very far out at sea; but it is only In the breeding season that they spend much time on shore. They arc found only in the southern hemisphere, and chiefly in high southern latitudes, although some of the species extend into warm regions, as viten iscus Humboldtii to the coast of Peru. Of this species, which is called PaXara niiio, of child bird, by the Peruvians, Tschudi states that it is easily tamed, becomes very sociable, and follows its master like a dog, waddling along in a very amusing manner with its plump body and short legs, keeping its balance by motions of its little wings. It dis plays considerable intelligence, and learns to answer to its name. In some of the furthest antarctic regions peguins are prodigiously numerous, appearing on the shore like regi.
ments of soldiers, or, according to another similitude which has been used by a voyager, like bands of little children in white aprons. They often occupy for their breeding ground a space of several acres, which is laid out and leveled and divided into squares, as nicely as if it had been done by a survevor; whilst between the compartments they march as accurately as soldiers on parade. The KING PENGUIN (A. Patachonica) a large species, of the size of the great auk, dark grayish-blue above, white beneath, with a black head and a yellow curved baud on the throat, is found in such numbers on some of the sandy antarctic coasts that Mr. Bennett describes one breedinmgrbund on Mac quarie island as covering thirty or forty acres, and, to give some notion of the multitudes, speaks of 30,000 or 40,000 birds as continually landing and as many putting to sea. On many of the antarctic shores the penguins do not flee from nor seem to dread the presence of man, remaining as if stupidly indifferent, even when their companions are knocked on the head; their very indifference, it is said, suggesting the idea of loneliness and desola tion more powerfully than if there were a total absence of life. When attacked, however, they often show courage in self-defense, and are ready to., run with open bill at an invader. The young are reckoned good eating; the old are said to be black and tough. The name penguin is said to be derived from the Latin pinguis, fat —Penguins make no nest, but lay a single egg in a chosen place on the shore; and the egg is carefully tended both by male and 'female. The female penguin keeps charge of her young for nearly twelve months.—Many of the penguins are birds of bright plumage.—Cuttlefish, and other eephalopoda, form a great part of their food. Their voice is loud and harsh, between a quack and a bray, but there are many diversities in the different species.