CHAPTER I. 

 THE NATATORES, OH SWIMMING BIRDS. 



THE Natatores are obviously devoted, by their organisation, to 

 an aquatic life. Their constant haunts are found on the great 

 rivers and lakes, or on the coast. They are chiefly characterised 

 by the form of their feet. The toes are united by marginal mem- 

 branes in the Coots and Water-rails, or in others by the extension 

 of webs b3tween and uniting the toes, of a soft membrane slightly 

 lobed ; hence the name of Palmipedes, or web-footed, usually 

 applied to them. These broad palmate feet, acting at the end of 

 a long lever, strike the water with great force when fully ex- 

 panded, being favoured by their backward position. When the 

 bird recovers its stroke, the toes are relaxed in their forward 

 movement, preparatory to another effort ; thus progression through 

 the water is obtained. 



Some of the swimming birds in their flight are feeble and slow ; 

 others are incapable of even rising from the water, being only 

 furnished with rudimentary wings. Again, there are species 

 which possess extraordinary powers of traversing the air, their 

 well- developed wings enabling them to pass through space with 

 wonderful rapidity. The Albatross is met with on the high seas 

 at a vast distance from the shore. Others, as the Petrels, seem 

 to revel in storms and tempests, mingling their wild cry with 

 that of the storm-tossed waves. The sailors, who look anxiously 

 to windward at the dark horizon, where the clouds are sur- 

 charged with torrents of rain ready to burst on the ship, are 

 assured of the approaching tempest by the circling flight of the 

 white-winged Albatross, as it is seen through the obscure and 

 threatening mist. 



