OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 397 



and to the extremities of the toes four inches more; and the 

 breadth of the wings expanded was forty-two inches. A person 

 attempted to eat the body, but found it very strong and rancid, 

 as is the flesh of all birds living on fish. Divers or loons, though 

 bred in the most northerly parts of Europe, yet are seen with us 

 in very severe winters ; and on the Thames they are called sprat 

 loons, because they prey much on that sort of fish. 



The legs of the colymbi and mergi are placed so very backward, 

 and so out of all centre of gravity, that .these birds cannot walk 

 at all. They are called by Linnaeus compedes, because they move 

 on the ground as if shackled or fettered. WHITE. 



These accurate and ingenious observations, tending to set forth 

 in a proper light the wonderful works of God in the creation, and 

 to point out His wisdom in adapting the singular form and position 

 of the limbs of this bird to the particular mode in which it is 

 destined to pass the greatest part of its life in an element much 

 denser than the air, do Mr. White credit, not only as a naturalist, 

 but as a man, and as a philosopher, in the truest sense of the 

 word, in my opinion \ for were we enabled to trace the works of 

 nature minutely and accurately, we should find, not only that 

 every bird, but every creature was equally well adapted to the 

 purpose for which it was intended; though this fitness and 

 propriety of form is more striking in such animals as are destined 

 to any uncommon mode of life. 



I have had in my possession two birds, which, though of a 

 different genus, bear a great resemblance to Mr. White's Colymbus, 

 in their manner of life, which is spent chiefly in the water, wher a . 

 they swim and dive with astonishing rapidity, for which purpose 

 their fin-toed feet, placed far behind, and very short wings, are 

 particularly well adapted, and show the wisdom of God in th< 

 creation as conspicuously as the bird before mentioned. Thesv 

 birds were the greater and lesser crested grebe, podiceps cristate 

 et auritsu. What surprised me most was, that the first of these 

 birds was found alive on dry ground, about seven miles from the 

 sea, to which place there was no communication by water. How 

 did it get so far from the sea? its wings and legs being so ill 



