Île des Pingouins eroded by the sea, steep-sided, 4 km long and 1 km wide. Its surrounding coastal cliffs vary from 50 m to 300 m in height, making it virtually inaccessible by sea and rarely visited. It is free of introduced species, so has a relatively pristine biota compared with the other islands in the archipelago. At least 29 bird species breed on the island, which has been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area (IBA). It has an exceptionally high density of seabirds, including a million pairs of macaroni penguins, 300 pairs of black-browed albatrosses, four pairs of Salvin's
Macaroni office (see modern Eastern Thrace's μαχαρωνιά - "macharōnia" in the sense of "rice-based dish served at the funeral"), in which case, the term would be composed of the double root of μακάριος "blessed" and αἰωνίος ("aiōnios"), "eternally". The second is the Greek μακαρία "barley broth", which would have added the suffix "-one". In his book "Delizia! The Epic History of Italians and their Food" (2007), John Dickie instead says that the word macaroni, and its earlier variants like "maccheroni", "comes from "maccare", meaning to pound or crush." The word first appears in English as "makerouns" in the 1390 "Forme of