A Bird’s-Eye View 
he has never seen, and never expects to see, and 
that has no more connection with the life- 
history of the bird than has the transit of Ve- 
nus—these microscopic, polysyllabic, and in- 
comprehensible data he willingly relegates to 
the enthusiast in skeletons. 
These two groups comprise all but three of 
our species of ducks, and these form the third 
or merganser group, found both in salt and 
fresh water, but living largely upon fish, for 
the capture of which they can swim under 
water. While these are fine-looking birds, es- 
pecially the ‘*‘hooded’’ merganser, their fish 
diet makes them even more unsavory than sea 
ducks. 
One pleasure of studying water fowl, that is 
seldom enjoyed when watching land birds, is 
due to the large numbers in which almost every 
species congregates, and the peculiar animation 
that springs from multitudes. As compared 
with other birds, the water fowl are very silent, 
it is true; and, from this fact, they get the 
reputation, among thoughtless people, of being 
cold-blooded and undemonstrative. But one 
finds the social instinct emphasized among them 
quite as strongly as among the other species ; 
and they illustrate the fact that individuals less 
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