WINGS AND FEET 



below like the fin of a great fish, and I have 

 seen a surf scoter near at hand fly under water. 



It is a curious thing, when one stops to think 

 of it, that some species of ducks like those 

 named above should vigorously fly under 

 water, while other ducks should keep their 

 wings close to their sides and shoot about 

 under water by the action of their feet alone, 

 yet this seems to be the case. The redhead and 

 the canvasback, the scaups, the whistler or 

 golden-eye and the bufflehead all seem to dis- 

 regard their wings under water and use the 

 feet alone. This is also true of the mergansers, 

 who always dive with the wings pressed closely 

 to the sides. Edmund Selous, who has watched 

 water birds from vantage points on the cliffs 

 of the Shetland Islands, says : " The merganser 

 dives like the shag or cormorant 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, where 

 the water almost laps the shore, he can often 

 be watched thus gliding in rapid pursuit." ' 



1 Bird Watching, London, 1901, p. 153. 

 193 



