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7 2 THE CONDOR VoL. IX other character distinguishing the Penguin.? from all other birds is the degenerate condition of the wings, which are reduced to flattened inflexible paddles or flippers without any wing quills. Penguins are confined to the southern and Antarctic seas. In the far south they form the most characteristic feature of those inhospitable regions. In addition to the shores of the Antarctic Coutinent and the various Islands of the South Seas they are found arouud the coasts of New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and South America. The most northerly point at which Penguins have been hitherto met with are the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Equador on the Equator in the Pacific. On the coasts of South Africa only one species is met with. This is the Black- footed or Jackass Penguin (,$?hcniscus dcmctzctts) which niakes up in numbers for the lack of variety. It is found everywhere along the coasts from the southern BLACK-b'OOTED P?NGUIZ'qS ON DASSF?N ISLAND, SOUTH AFRICA part of Angola on the west as far as Port Elizabeth on the south, and can be seen at any time swimming about in the sea quite unconcerned, even in the harbour at Cape Town. These Penguins never voluntarily come ashore on the mainland but resort to certain small islands all along the coast for breeding purposes. Here they are to be seeu in enormous numbers at certain times of the year and it is the pur- pose of this article to describe a visit to one of these islands made in order to observe these and other sea birds. The particular island which I last visited is called Dassen Island and lies about forty miles north of Cape Town and four or five miles from the nearest point of the mainland. It is loxv and sandy, about two miles long by about a mile across. My wife, to whom I am indebted for the photographs used to illustrate this article, and I, left Cape Town on February the third last year in a Government tug, in company