frying, and other culinary purposes; and the flesh was quite as delicate, and could scarcely be distinguished in flavour from lamb.  Besides our albatross, the dogs caught some small birds, about the size of our partridge, but their gait was something like that of the penguin.  The male is of a glossy black, with a bright red hard crest on the top of the head.  The hen is brown.  They stand erect, and have long yellow legs, with which they run very fast; their wings are small and useless for flying, but they are armed with sharp spurs for defence, and also, I imagine, for assisting them in climbing, as they are found generally among the rocks.  The name they give this bird here is simply “cock,” its only note being a noise very much resembling the repetition of that word.  Its flesh is plump, fat, and excellent eating.

VISIT TO A PENGUIN ROOKERY.

The spot of ground occupied by our settlers is bounded on each side by high bluffs, which extend far into the sea, leaving a space in front, where all their hogs run nearly wild, as they are prevented going beyond those limits by those natural barriers; and the creatures who, at stated periods, come up from the sea, remain in undisturbed possession of the beaches beyond our immediate vicinity.  The weather being favourable, we launched our boat early in the morning, for the purpose of procuring a supply of eggs for the consumption of the family.  We heard the chattering of the penguins from the rookery long before we landed, which was noisy in the extreme, and groups of them were scattered all over the beach; but the high thick grass on the declivity of the hill seemed their grand establishment, and they were hidden by it from our view.  As we could not find any place where we could possibly land our boat in safety, I and two more swam on shore with bags tied round our necks to hold the eggs in, and the boat with one of the men lay off, out of the surf.  I should think the ground occupied by these birds (if I may be allowed so to call them) was at least a mile in circumference, covered in every part with grasses and reeds, which grew considerably higher than my head; and on every gentle ascent, beginning from the beach, on all the large grey rocks, which occasionally appeared above this grass, sat perched groups of these strange and uncouth-looking creatures; but the noise which rose up from beneath baffles all description!  As our business lay with the noisy part of this community, we quietly crept under the grass, and commenced our plundering search, though there needed none, so profuse was the quantity.  The scene altogether well merits a better description than I can give—­thousands, and hundreds of thousands, of these little two-legged erect monsters hopping around us, with voices very much resembling in tone that of the human; all opened their throats together:  so thickly clustered in groups that it was almost impossible to place the