166 EXTRACTS FROM NOTE-BOOKS. CH. XXXI. 



could the old birds bring with it the moisture 

 which is necessary for the subsistence of all birds 

 of this kind. In fact they have no means of feed- 

 ing their young except by carrying them to their 

 food, for they cannot carry their food to them. 



The foot of the heron, as well as its general 

 figure, seems but little adapted for perching on 

 trees, and yet whoever visits a heronry will see 

 numbers of these birds perched in every kind of 

 attitude, on the very topmost branches of the trees. 

 The water-ousel manages to run on the ground at 

 the bottom of the water, in search of its food. All 

 these actions of birds seem not only difficult, but 

 would almost appear to be impossible. Neverthe- 

 less the birds perform them with ease, as well as 

 many others equally curious, and apparently equally 

 difficult. 



The feet of ducks are peculiarly ill adapted for 

 perching on trees; nevertheless the golden-eye duck 

 generally breeds in hollow trees, not only in broken 

 recesses of the trunk, easy of access, but even in 

 situations where, after having entered at a narrow 

 round aperture, she has to descend for nearly an 

 arm's length, almost perpendicularly, to reach the 

 nest. Through this same entrance also has she 

 to take her young ones when hatched, before they 

 can be launched on their natural element water. 



