Song Birds and Water Fowl 
more inland species, living along rivers, lakes, 
and bayous, rather than by salt water, and is 
the chief fresh-water diver. Disappearing al- 
most without a ripple, it comes up again many 
hundred yards distant ; and, when fleeing from 
danger, it often swims along with only its head 
and long neck above water, presenting the ap- 
pearance of asnake. Its long bill, small head, 
serpentine neck, and very slender body give it 
a very snaky look even upon land ; and, with 
its graceful form and handsome plumage, it is as 
beautiful as it is singular. Yet, although some- 
times indulging in prolonged and lofty soaring 
on the wing, it spends more than half of its 
time by day in the water. Through this transi- 
tion species we come to the 
Swimming-aérial Group.—We are now dis- 
tinctly on and above the water, and here we find 
as the most important, gulls and terns, which 
have elsewhere been fully described, easily 
aquatic and gracefully aerial. In this division, 
too, is a genuine marine bird of prey—the 
jager (hunter)—which obtains its food by rob- 
bing the booty captured by small gulls and 
terns. By one further ascent we come to the — 
Aérial Group, consisting of the most purely 
oceanic birds, ‘‘ rarely landing except to breed, 
g2 
