404 



BIRD. 



There are two or three other genera of birds 

 which frequent the margins of the waters, and live 

 on food similar to that of the large-toed ones. The 

 form of their bills would thus connect them with 

 these ; but as they seek their food in places bare of 

 herbage, find it less abundantly in any one spot, and 

 must therefore range more on the wing in quest of 

 it, all the other parts of their structure are so different 

 that the connexion is not a natural one. These 

 genera are, the flamingos, which resemble the herons 

 in their haunts and many of their characters, but 

 they live on mollusca and reptiles rather than on 

 fish ; the pratincoles, which subsist chiefly upon 

 insects which they capture on the wing ; and they in 

 some of their habits resemble the bee-eaters, and 

 the carrion bird of Australia, Chionis necrophaga of 

 New Holland, which has no type among European 

 birds. 



Coot. 



The bills of which some account has been given, 

 bring us to the margin of the water, and we have 

 only to notice the birds which find their food in that 

 element. The general characters of these depend 

 less upon the bill than those of the land birds, but 

 there are two well marked divisions : those which 

 find their food at the bottom of shallow waters, and 

 those which feed chiefly upon what is buoyant in the 

 clear water, though the first eat floating substances 

 when they come in their way. 



The first comprises the geese, swans, and ducks, 

 which are all really ground feeders, only some of 

 them feed almost exclusively on ground covered with 

 water, and their bill and neck vary according to the 

 depth of water with which their feeding ground is 

 covered. As they are unable in all cases to see 

 their food, they have the bill with a covering more 

 or less sentient. They have the mandibles broad 

 and flat, though often with an enlargement at the 

 base of the upper one. 



The gradation is from the geese, which feed fully 

 more on the humid meadows than in the water, to 

 the swans and swimming ducks, which never plunge 

 the body, to the diving ducks which go to the bottom 

 in considerable depths ; and thence it passes to the 

 habitual divers which capture their food in the water, 

 not at the bottom, and thus have the bill of a different 

 form. As this gradation proceeds, the birds become 

 more and more animal in their feeding. 



Geese, which feed chiefly upon vegetable sub- 

 stances, have the bill elevated at the base, narrowed 

 and rounded at the tip, comparatively short and 

 stout, furnished with a nail at thd point of the upper 

 mandible of harder texture than the rest of the bill, 

 and often of a different colour. The sides of the bill, 

 which come in contact for a considerable breadth, 

 are fringed with cartilaginous protuberances resem- 

 bling teeth. This form of bill cuts grass something 

 in the same way as the ruminant mammalia, which 



have the anterior part of the one jaw with cartilagi- 

 nous ridges in place of teeth. 



Swans, which are also chiefly vegetable in their 

 feeding, but which feed more upon the roots of plants 

 under water, have the upper mandible enlarged at 

 the base, but. the bill is larger than in the geese, of 

 equal breadth throughout its length, and not so firm 

 arid robust. 



Swimming ducks, which are omnivorous, but prefer 

 animal substances picked up on the land or dabbled 

 for in the water, vary a good deal in their habits, and 

 their bills correspond. The common duck, which 

 may be taken as the average, has the bill most flat- 

 tened, and of the softest texture. These ducks have 

 the neck lengthened, and plunge the anterior part 

 of the body in the water till the axis is nearly per- 

 pendicular ; but they do not get so deep as to have 

 the joints of the tarsi immersed. 



The diving ducks have the neck and bill shorter 

 than the swimming ones ; but still they feed not in 

 the volume of the water, but at the bottom, and upon 

 mollusca, worms, spawn, and other soft substances, 

 and rarely if ever upon fish. This is the chief reason 

 why their flesh is much more juicy and finer flavoured 

 than that of the true aquatic feeders. 



But there is a gradation in the diving ducks, the 

 pochards, who resort more to the fresh waters, and 

 the rich mud banks on the estuaries of rivers, have 

 the bill much broader and flatter than the gannets, 

 which may be reckoned the most seaward of all the 

 duck tribe ; and there is a considerable trace of the 

 fishy flavour in the flesh of the latter. 



The mergansers combine the characters of the 

 diving ducks and the true divers ; they catch their 

 prey in the water, and not at the bottom ; but they 

 are not formed for following it like the divers. They 

 therefore require to have the bill of a more prehen- 

 sile form than the one, and better able to retain its 

 hold than the other. Accordingly, they have the 

 bill lengthened, firm in its texture, nearly cylindrical, 

 hooked at the tips of both mandibles, and serrated 

 with reflected teeth along the cutting edges. They 

 live upon fish and reptiles, and their flesh is rather 

 rank in flavour. The following is a sketch of the 

 bill of the red-breasted merganser. 



Mergus serratus. 



The divers and guillimots drive through the water 

 with great rapidity, and transfix their prey with the 

 harp points of the mandibles, or wound it with the 

 snap of the tomia, which in some of the species are 

 furnished with a notch. This notch, which is of a 

 very peculiar form, quite different from that in the 

 bills of the rapacious or the insectivorous birds, is well 

 shown in the bill of the foolish guillimot ( Una troile,) 

 of which a figure is annexed. 



In proportion as those birds which are dependent 

 on the sea for their subsistence, and capable of fcU 



