240 Townsend, Use of Wings and Feet by Diving Birds. [July 



in rising into the air in flight kick away the beach or the water with 

 both feet together. This I have proved by examining the imprints 

 of their feet in the sand of a beach. 



The Darters or Anhingas, as just referred to by Lea, use the feet 

 alone under water. 



Among the Ducks, both classes of divers are found. The 

 American and the Red-breasted Merganser both dive like the 

 Cormorant. They often leap clear of the water, in graceful curves, 

 with their wings cleaving closely to the sides. At other times the 

 leap is much curtailed, or they sink beneath the surface without 

 apparent effort. I should infer, therefore, that the wings were not 

 used under water, and this inference is borne out by the following 

 from Selous (16): "The merganser dives like the shag or cormor- 

 ant — though the curved leap is a little less vigorous — and swims, 

 like them, without using the wings. His food being fish,. . . .he 

 usually swims horizontally, sometimes only just beneath the surface, 

 and, as he comes right into the shallow inlets, when the water 

 almost laps the shore, he can often be watched thus gliding in rapid 

 pursuit." 



The other members of this order that do not, I believe, use the 

 wings under water are the Redhead, Greater and Lesser and 

 Ring-necked Scaups, Whistler and Bufflehead, while those that do 

 use the wings are the Old Squaw, Harlequin Duck, the three Eiders 

 the three Scoters and possibly the Ruddy Duck. This list I have 

 made out from my own observations of the way the wings are held 

 in these birds as they dive, and in a few cases the birds have been 

 observed under water. The only member of our eastern sea or 

 diving ducks omitted from the list is the Canvasback, which I have 

 never seen dive. It is probable that it acts as does the nearly 

 related Redhead. It is interesting to notice that the two classes are 

 grouped separately in the A. O. U. Check-List, the first class being 

 placed together at the beginning of the list, the other class at the 

 end of the list. 



Some of these Ducks feed largely on the bottom on shellfish and 

 crustaceans, or on vegetable matter, while a few of them feed 

 largely on fish. The latter birds would naturally develop the 

 swiftest form of propulsion. Mergansers, Whistlers and Bufne- 

 heads, largely fish-eating Ducks, progress by the feet alone, while 



