Song Birds and. Water Fowl 
Thus at the bottom of the circle we find them 
insensibly merged, and the same is true at the 
top. In this latter case, we find a needful cor- 
rection of a natural supposition, from reading 
the usual tabular list of birds in scientific works, 
that the last of the water fowl are of all the 
class least like the land birds ; whereas we find 
a gradual approximation toward the character- 
istics of the aérial terrestrial division, and ex- 
pressed by the popular names of some aérial 
water species, such as ‘‘sea-pigeon,’’ ‘‘sea-swal- 
low,’’ ‘‘sea-dove,’’ etc. The converging lines 
of the two distinct natures are finely gathered 
into one in the ‘‘sea eagles’’ of Africa, the 
East Indies, and elsewhere, the grandest of that 
kingly race being perhaps the enormous sea 
eagle of Kamtchatka. 
In the somewhat arbitrary adoption of a 
boundary-line between these two great classes, 
we may as well agree with the scientist, who 
gives to our gamey friend ‘‘ bob-white’’ the 
credit or disgrace of bringing up the rear in the 
long terrestrial procession. Crossing that im- 
aginary line, which to the ornithologist is as 
true a fiction as are the equator and arctic cir- 
cles to the geographer, we now pass over to the 
more numerous and more clearly defined groups 
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