Water Fowl 
and groves, but commonly remote from man’s 
usual resorts. This circumstance will doubtless 
preclude that degree of popularity which be- 
longs to land birds; while, at the same time, 
the mystery of their lives, and vagueness of 
their personalities, which are due, in part, to 
that self-same cause, will, to people of acertain 
temperament, greatly enhance their charms. 
Whoever presents the claims of water fowl 
is likely to do it in the ~é/e of a special pleader, 
who feels that the mind of the listener is de- 
cidedly cold in regard to the subject in hand, 
even if not absolutely antagonistic to his own 
position. In view of this, I will not, at the 
outset, seek to evade the depreciation of these 
strange fowl that will certainly be felt when 
their claims are first presented: being confident 
that, when the two groups are placed upon an 
impartial footing, much of the apparent inferi- 
ority of water fowl will disappear; while their 
various peculiar excellencies will in large meas- 
ure offset the special and familiar claims of land 
birds to our admiration. 
Let me, then, forestall any unfavorable im- 
pression in regard to our sea-friends by confess- 
ing two or three of their demerits. 
The majority of land birds seem more ap- 
45 
