ENTIRE-WEBBED BIRDS. 229 



and retains its hold like a barbed hook. The darter 

 and the tropical bird have their bills formed in a 

 manner similar to that of the gannet, and they also 

 dart or descend on their prey; but the darter is a 

 more landward bird, perching on trees, and fishing 

 chiefly in the fresh waters, or in those salt lagunes 

 where there are mangroves ; and the tropical bird is 

 more discursive over the sea. 



The cormorants, which fly lower, have the bill less 

 capable of thrusting with the point, or of resisting a 

 strain on the base. Its thickness is more uniform, 

 and the upper mandible is much more hooked, while 

 the lower one is truncated, and a small portion of the 

 bill has an oblique cutting motion. There is a trace 

 of the carrion bill in it, and the mandibles are not 

 serrated. The birds which have this bill do not fish 

 in the same style as the ganriets and darters. The 

 bill of the albatross, which is a very wide-ranging 

 bird, has still more of the carrion shape ; but it has 

 also a sort of tooth on the bend of the mandible, and 

 thus can lift prey out of the water. 

 Q3 



