Southern rockhopper penguin penguins which get around obstacles by sliding on their bellies or by awkward climbing using their flipper-like wings as aid, rockhoppers will try to jump over boulders and across cracks. This behaviour is by no means unique to this species however - at least the other "crested" penguins of the genus "Eudyptes" hop around rocks too. But the rockhopper's congeners occur on remote islands in the New Zealand region, whereas the rockhopper penguins are found in places that were visited by explorers and whalers since the Early Modern era. Hence, it is this particular species in which this behaviour was
The Bird 'Grip' ever after. While the hero in these stories is normally aided by a talking animal, for it to be a ghost is unusual. This is the grateful dead, a common folklore motif, found also in "Fair Brow". The Bird 'Grip' The Bird 'Grip' is a Swedish fairy tale. Andrew Lang included it "The Pink Fairy Book". It is Aarne-Thompson type 550, the quest for the golden bird/firebird; other tales of this type include "The Golden Bird", "The Greek Princess and the Young Gardener", "How Ian Direach got the Blue Falcon", "The Nunda, Eater of People", and "Tsarevitch Ivan, the Fire