LOCOMOTION. 259 



another of those admirable examples of Divine or- 

 dinance, which are everywhere before our eyes, 

 without our taking the trouble of employing a 

 thought on the subject."* 



M. Montbeillard says of one species of the dip- 

 per (Cat-marin), that it can only walk on the sur- 

 face of the waves, and his intelligent correspondent 

 M. Baillon, of Montrem'l, says he one day found two 

 of these divers cast ashore by the tide, lying on the 

 sand, working their feet and wings, and crawling 

 with difficulty, so that he gathered them like stones, 

 though they were not hurt nor weakly ; for upon 

 throwing up one of them, it flew away, and dived, 

 and played on the water, as if rejoiced at regaining 

 its proper element. 



The coot (Fulica atra), like the divers, has an 

 aversion to take wing, and can seldom be sprung in 

 its retreat at low water ; yet though it walks rather 

 awkwardly, it contrives to skulk through the grass 

 and reeds with considerable quickness, the com- 

 pressed form of its body being peculiarly fitted for 

 this purpose ; and we have often marked its prog- 

 ress by the top of the herbage, on the edge of a 

 lake, moving as if it had been swept by a narrow 

 current of wind. The same aversion to run rather 

 than to take wing may also be remarked in the rails 

 (Rallidce, LEACH), some of which are landbirds, and 

 among these we.may mention the landrail or corn- 

 crake (Ortygometra crex, FLEMING), a bird that has 

 been said never to take the water, and keeps regu- 

 larly upon the ground, taking flight but rarely, and 

 never except when compelled thereto. 



" We may know," says M. Montbeillard, " when 

 a dog lights on the scent of the corncrake from his 

 keen search, his number of false tracks, and the 

 obstinacy with which the bird persists in keeping 

 the ground, insomuch that it may be sometimes 



* Letters, p. 217. 



