SPHENIS'CIDA, the penguin family, or a sub-family of brevipennatal, belonging to the order natatores, or swimmers. The principal or typical genus is srlieniseus. The penguins occupy in the southern hemisphere the place filled by the auks in the northern. See AUK, ante. They live gregariously in the seas of the southern hemisphere on the coasts of south Africa and South America, especially at Terra del Fuego, and on the solitary islands of the South Pacific. The spheniseidce contain the genera spheniseus, leudyptes, pygoscelis, and aptenodytes. The aptenodytes patachonica, or the king penguin, is the most remarkable. Mr. G. Bennett, who saw them at Macquarrie island in the southern Pacific (see PENGUIN, ante), says: " They are arranged when on shore in as compact a manner and in regular ranks as a regiment of soldiers; and arc classed with the greatest order, the young birds being in one situation, the molting birds !in another, the sitting hens in a third, the clean birds in a fourth, etc.; and so strictly do birds in similar condition congregate that, should a bird that is molting intrude itself those which are clean, it is immediately ejected from them. The females hatch the eggs by keeping them close between their thighs; and if approached during the time of incu bation, move away, carrying their eggs with them. At this time the male bird goes to sea And collects food for the female, which becomes very fat. After the young is
hatched both parents go to sea and bring home food for it. It soon becomes so fat•aa scarcely to be able to walk, the old birds getting very thin." Capt. Fitzroy gives the following account of the manner of feeding the young of the jackass penguin, spheniscus demersus, at Noir island: "The old bird gets on a little eminence and makes a great noise (between quacking and braying), holding its head up in the air as if it were har anguing the penguinery, while the young otie stands close to it, but a little lower. The old bird, having continued its clatter for about a minute, puts its head down and opens its mouth widely, into which the young one thrusts its head, and then appears to suck from the throat of its mother for a minute or two, after which the clatter is repeated, and the young one is again fed; this continues for about ten minutes." Mr. Darwin relates an encounter with one of these birds on the Falkland islands: "I was much amused by watching its habits. It was a brave bird; and until reaching the sea it regularl3t fought and drove me backward. less than heavy blows would have stopped him; every inch gained he firmly kept standing close before me, erect and determined. When thus opposed he continually rolled his head from side to side, in a very odd man ner, as if the power of vision only lay io the anterior and basal part of each eye."