260 THE BIRDS ABOUT Us. 



" Here is in this river, and in the waters all over Florida, a very 

 curious and handsome bird, the people call them Snake-birds; I 

 think I have seen paintings of them on the Chinese screens, and 

 other Indian pictures ; they seem to be a species of Colymbus, but far 

 more beautiful and delicately formed than any other that I have ever 

 seen. They delight to sit in little peaceable communities, on the dry 

 limbs of trees, hanging over the still waters, with their wings and tails 

 expanded, I suppose to cool and air themselves, when at the same time 

 they behold their images in the watery mirror. At such times, when 

 we approach them, they drop off the limbs into the water as if dead, 

 and for a minute or two are not to be seen ; when on a sudden, at a great 

 distance, their long slender head and neck appear, like a snake rising 

 erect out of the water ; and no other part of them is to be seen when 

 swimming, except sometimes the tip end of their tail. In the heat 

 of the day they are seen in great numbers, sailing very high in the 

 air, over lakes and rivers." 



Under the general name of Petrel, which is a 

 familiar one to all, are included a large number of 

 birds, of which about twenty-five are found on the 

 coasts of this continent. They are subdivided by 

 reason of certain anatomical features into Fulmars, 

 Shearwaters, and Petrels. 



Of the Giant Fulmar, which occasionally reaches 

 on the Pacific coast as far north as Oregon, Moseley 

 states, based on observations made in the South At- 

 lantic, 



" Whilst we were at work on the beach crowds of birds began to 

 assemble, especially the Giant Petrel, or ' Breakbones,' the ' Nelly,' 

 or Stinker,' of sealers. This bird in its habits is most remarkably 

 like the vulture. 



" It soars all day along the coast on the lookout for food. No 

 sooner is an animal killed than numbers appear as if by magic, and 

 the birds are evidently well acquainted with the usual proceedings 

 of sealers, who kill the sea-elephant, take off the skin and blubber, 

 and leave the carcass. They settled down here all round in groups, 



