NATATORES. 



INTRODUCTION. 



" Watchful and agile, uttering voices wild 

 And harsh, yet in accordance with the waves 

 Upon the beach, the winds in caverns moaning, 

 Or winds and waves abroad upon the water. 

 Some sought their food among the finny shoals, 

 Swift darting from the clouds, emerging soon 

 With slender captives glittering in their beaks ; 

 These in recesses of steep crags constructed 

 Their eyries inaccessible, and train'd 

 Their hardy broods to forage in all weathers." 



" As Naturalists and believers in the unerring wisdom so 

 greatly and wonderfully displayed throughout the animated 

 creation, we are not to judge of their qualities from the exag- 

 gerations of fancy, but to consider whether their powers are not 

 fitly and beautifully adapted to the places they are destined to 

 fill in the great chain of the universe. Viewed in this the only 

 true light, we shall find much to admire, since their instincts 

 and habits are in such perfect accordance with, and so ably 

 support the economy of their being." SELBY. 



WE have now to describe the remaining British 

 genera which compose the Natatores or Swimmers, 

 generally considered as the concluding Order among 

 Birds, and whose whole life and business is among 

 the waters. From the insular character of our lands, 



