WINGS AND FEET 



however, scramble away tinder water, using 

 both feet and wings. 



Cormorants are famed for their ability to 

 swim under water with great swiftness, and 

 domesticated ones are used at the present day 

 by the Chinese as catchers of fish, while a ring 

 around the neck prevents the bird from profiting 

 by its labours. Both when confined in tanks 

 and wild in the sea this curious bird uses its 

 feet alone for propulsion. Selous * says of 

 these birds: " Others, whose young were still 

 with them on the nest, although full fledged 

 and almost as big as themselves, plunged, 

 attended by these into the water. ... It 

 was easy to follow these birds as they swam 

 midway between the surface of the water and 

 the white pebbled floor of the cavern, and I 

 am thus able to confirm my previous con- 

 viction that the feet alone are used by them in 

 swimming, without any help from the wings, 

 which are kept all the while closed." The 

 American coot or mud-hen, a bird of the 

 rail family, is a graceful diver, and, like the 

 cormorant, it keeps its wings close to the 



*The bird Watcher in the Shetlands. London. 1905. 

 P. 50. 



195 



