The Natural History of Selborne 429 



This colymbus was of considerable bulk, weighing only three 

 drachms short of three pounds avoirdupois. It measured in 

 length from the bill to the tail (which was very short) two 

 feet, 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 back- 

 ward, and so out of all centre of gravity, that these birds 

 cannot walk at all. They are called by Linnaeus competes, 

 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 singu- 

 lar form and position of the limb 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 philo- 

 sopher, 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 un- 

 common 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 colym- 

 bus, in their manner of life, which is spent chiefly in the water, 

 where 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 



