574 



A HISTORY OF 



OF WATER-FOWI, 



CHAPTER CXX1II. 



OF WATER-FOWL IN GENERAL. 



IN settling the distinctions among the other 

 classes of birds, there was some difficulty ; one 

 tribe encroached so nearly upon the nature 

 and habitudes of another, that it was not easy 

 to draw the line which kept them asunder : 

 but in water-fowl, nature has marked them for 

 us by a variety of indelible characters ; so 

 that it would be almost as unlikely to mistake 

 a land-fowl for one adapted for living and 

 swimming among the waters, as a fish for a 

 bird. 



The first great distinction in this class ap- 

 pears in the toes, which are webbed together 

 for swimming. Those who have remarked 

 the feet or toes of a duck, will easily conceive 

 how admirably they are formed for making 

 way in the water. When men swim, they do 

 not open the fingers, so as to let the fluid pass 

 through them ; but closing them together, pre- 

 sent one broad surface to beat back the water, 

 and thus push their bodies along. What man 

 performs by art, nature has supplied to water- 

 fowl ; and, by broad skins, has webbed their 

 toes together, so that they expand two broad oars 

 to the water; and thus, moving them alter- 

 nately, with the greatest case paddle along. 

 We must observe also, that the toes are so 

 contrived, that, as they strike backward, their 

 broadest hollow surface beats the water ; but 

 as they gather them in again, for a second 

 blow, their front surface contracts, and does 

 not impede the bird's progressive motion. 



As their toes are webbed in the most con- 

 venient manner, so are their legs also made 

 most fitly for swift progression in the water. 

 The legs of all are short, except the three birds 

 described in a former chapter ; namely, the 

 flamingo, the avosetta, and the corrira: all 



which, for that reason, I have thought proper 

 to rank among the crane kind, as they make 

 little use of their toes in swimming. Except 

 these, all web-footed birds have very short 

 legs; and these strike, while they swim, with 

 great facility. Were the leg long, it would 

 act like a lever whose prop is placed to a dis- 

 advantage ; its motions would be slow, and 

 the labour of moving it considerable. For 

 this reason, the very few birds whose webbed 

 feet are long, never make use of them in swim- 

 ming : the web at the bottom seems only of 

 service as a broad base, to prevent them from 

 sinking while they walk in the mud ; but it 

 otherwise rather retards than advances their 

 motion. 



The shortness of the legs in the web-footed 

 kinds, renders them as unfit for walking on 

 land, as it qualifies them for swimming in their 

 natural element. Their stay, therefore, upon 

 land, is but short and transitory ; and they 

 seldom venture to breed far from the sides of 

 those waters where they usually remain. In 

 their breeding seasons, their young are brought 

 up by the water-side ; and they are covered 

 with a warm down, to fit them for the cold- 

 ness of their situation. The old ones, also, 

 have a closer, warmer plumage, than birds of 

 any other class. It is of their feathers that 

 our beds are composed ; as they neither mat, 

 nor imbibe humidity, but are furnished with 

 an animal oil that glazes their surface, and 

 keeps each separate. In some, however, this 

 animal oil is in too great abundance ; and is 

 as offensive from its smell, as it is serviceable 

 for the purposes of household economy. The 

 feathers, therefore, of all the penguin kind are 

 totally useless for domestic purposes; as neither 



