J02 CE C O N O M Y. 



for fwimming, and perfcdly adapted to their 

 manner of life. 



The whole order, of the goofe kind, as 

 ducks, merganfer, &:c. pafs their lives in wa- 

 ter as feeding upon water-infeds, fiHies, and 

 their eggs ^. Who does not fee, that attends 

 ever fo little, how exadly the wonderfull for- 



* notes, they imagined that fome people brought up to our 



* mufic, were finging. This animal is called by the na- 



* tives Haut, certainly becaufe going thro' thcfe mufical 



* intervals, it repeats. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, &c. 



This account fecms very wonderfull, and i leave it as it 

 flands without entering into any difcufiion about its credibi- 

 lity. I will only add, that Linnaeus feems in the new edi- 

 tion of the Syft. Nat. to give credit to it. For he fays in 

 his ihort way of defcription among other things, * It utters 



* an afcending hexacord. Its noife is hordbie, its tears pi- 



* teous.' He quotes Mangrave, Clufius, Gefner, &c. But 

 not having an' opportunity of confulting tliefe books i can- 

 not tell how far thefe authors confirm the foregoing account; 

 if it be true, it would furnifh fome obfervations, but this 

 would not bs a place for them. 



* Many opinions, fays the author in the note, have 

 been frarted in order to account how it happens that iiilies 

 are found in pools, and ditches, on high mountains and 

 eifewhere. But Gmelin obfcrves that the duck kind fwal- 

 low the eggs of filhes, that fome of thefe eggs go down, 

 and come out of their bodies unhurt, and fo are propa^^ated 

 jull in the fame manner, as has been obfervcd of plants. 

 X>iberg. 



Gmelin adds, that the Sibirians themfelves account for 

 this phrsnomenon in the manner above mentioned. 



mation 



