SWIMMING FEET. 425 



frequently to run over aquatic plants, so that its 

 toes are very long, while they are at the same 



time provided with a sort of approach to a paddle 

 in the thickened parts attached to their sides. 



Perhaps the most beautiful form of foot, if we 

 regard its admirable mechanical adaptation to the 

 purposes it is intended for, is the swimming foot. 

 It would require a very small amount of acuteness 

 to state the purposes for which a duck's or a goose's 

 foot was intended. The web between the toes, 

 stretched across in the manner so familiar to us, 

 evidently points to the fact that its possessor is 

 a bird whose life is spent upon the water, for 

 which it is so admirably adapted. Among a variety 

 of other forms of swimming feet, the foot of the 

 grebe deserves our notice. These birds are never 

 found far from the water; and, though able to walk 



