154 The Bird 



deserve notice. In their variety they rival the methods 

 of man himself, and we find many analogies between the 

 two. Penguins earn their food with perhaps the hardest 

 work, as they follow the fast-swimming fish of the open 

 ocean in their own icy element and capture them not- 

 withstanding their speed and quick turns. 



We must not forget the slim, evil-looking snake- 

 birds of the tropical swamps, which also dart through 

 the water, but impale their victims on their needle-pointed 

 beaks, suggesting the fish-spears of mankind. Cormo- 

 rants and sheldrakes also dive after the fish on which 

 they feed. 



Next in the list of strenuous seekers after fish we 

 must mention the osprey, which hovers on slowly vibrat- 

 ing wings, treading the air, as it were, over some favourite 

 spot, until a finny back shows itself near the surface, 

 when, giving itself to gravitation, the bird drops like a 

 plummet. It seizes its prey in its talons, while our com- 

 mon kingfisher, after watching patiently from some 

 branch overhanging the water, uses its bill to capture 

 the fish. Terns dive for their fish, gulls usually snatch 

 them from the surface, and skuas and jaegers get theirs 

 at second hand, stealing fish from the more skilful fishers 

 of the sea. When schools of mullet leap in frantic fear 

 from the water to escape the attacks of porpoises, or 

 when the dolphins force the flying-fish above the surface, 

 the merciless Frigate-bird has but to pick and choose. 

 Certain cormorants are the analogues of man's gill-nets, 

 a flock of these birds surrounding a school of fish in a 

 half-circle and driving them ashore or into shallow water. 



