nd tussock-grass on the right of the bay, about a mile or so
distant from the waterfall on the extreme left of the hut.

The birds had kept up an endless chatter, croaking, or rather barking,
just like a number of dogs quarrelling, in all manner of keys, as they
bustled in and out of the "rookery" they had established in the arm of
the cliff; and Fritz and Eric had been much diverted by their movements,
particularly when the feathered colonists came out of the water from
their fishing excursions and proceeded towards their nests.

The penguins, especially, seemed to possess the diving capabilities of
the piscine tribe, for they were able to remain so long under the
surface that they approached the beach without giving any warning that
they were in the neighbourhood. Looking out to sea, as the little party
of observers watched them, not a penguin was to be seen. Really, it
would have been supposed that all of them were on shore, particularly as
those there made such a din that it sounded as if myriads were gathered
together in their hidden retreat; but, all at once, the surface of the
water, some hundred yards or so from the beach, would be seen disturbed,
as if from a catspaw of a breeze, although what wind there was blew from
the opposite quarter, and then, a ripple appeared moving in towards the
land, a dark-red beak and sometimes a pair of owlish eyes showing for a
second and then disappearing again. The ripple came onwards quickly,
and the lookers-on could notice that it was wedge-shaped, in the same
fashion as wild geese wing their way through the air. A moment later, a
band of perhaps from three to four hundred penguins would scramble out
on to the stones with great rapidity, at once exchanging the vigorous
and graceful movements for which they were so remarkable while in the
water for the most ludicrous and ungainly ones possible now that they
were on terra firma; for, they tumbled about on the shingle and
apparently with difficulty assumed the normal position which is their
habit when on land--that of standing upright on their feet. These
latter are set too far back for their bodies to hang horizontally; so,
with their fin-like wings hanging down helplessly by their sides, they
look ashore, as Fritz said to Eric, "just the very image of a parcel of
rough recruits" going through their first drill in the "awkward squad!"

When the penguins got fairly out of the water, beyond reach of the
surf--which broke wi