RAVENS, CURLEWS, AND EIDER-DUCKS 153 



act of opening their wings. On the other hand, 

 cormorants, shags, and mergansers, birds which do 

 not use their wings in this way, dive in a quite 

 different manner. Instead of the sudden, little, 

 splashy duck, as described, they make a smooth, 

 gliding leap forwards and upwards, rising a little 

 from the water, with the neck stretched out, and 

 wings pressed close to the sides, to enter it again, 

 beak foremost, like a curved arrow, thus describing 

 the segment of a circle. Their shape, as they per- 

 form this movement, is that of a bent bow, and there 

 is the same suggestion in it of pent strength and 

 elasticity. 



The shag is the greatest exponent of this school of 

 diving, excelling even the cormorant — at least I fancy 

 so — by virtue of his smaller size. He leaps entirely 

 clear of the water, including even, for a moment, his 

 legs and feet. This seems really a surprising feat, 

 for, as I say, the wings are tightly closed, so that, 

 by the force merely of the powerful webbed feet, he 

 is able to throw himself bodily out of the sea. It 

 must be by a single stroke, I think, for the motion 

 is sudden and then continuous. The bird may, of 

 course, have been in ordinary activity just previously, 

 so that some slight degree of impetus may be sup- 

 posed to have been already gained, but this is un- 

 necessary, and the leap is often from quiescence. The 

 merganser dives like the shag or cormorant — though 

 the curved leap is a little less vigorous — and swims, 

 like them, without using the wings. His food being 

 fish, instead of getting deeper and deeper down till 

 he disappears, like the eider-duck, he usually swims 

 horizontally, sometimes only just beneath the surface. 



