Song Birds and Water Fowl 
eral species, is not found in our avifauna, be- 
ing confined to the coast of the Southern Ocean. 
Going not only on, but beneath the water, 
we find the 
Diving Group.—Some species have a re- 
markable facility for remaining under water a 
long time, and of swimming rapidly and a long 
distance while submerged, either by using 
simply their webbed feet, or, in some cases, by 
the additional use of the wings. This ability 
serves the double purpose of capturing their 
prey, and of escaping from danger. One 
family of the swimming group—the mergansers 
—has this faculty to some degree, but it is 
most conspicuous in those families that are 
distinctively called ‘‘ divers.’’ These include 
the great northern loon, which is able to swim 
many fathoms deep in water. Grebes are 
another family, a sort of diminutive loon, and 
still another are sea-parrots, already referred to. 
One by one, species become extinct, without 
any known cause, and the most notable instance 
of this in recent years is that of the great auk, 
another species of diver, which is supposed to 
have disappeared about forty years ago. The 
few skins and eggs of this bird that remain 
command a fabulous price, one skin, and a poor 
go 
