HISTORY OF BIRDS. 

 BOOK VII. 



OF WATER-FOWL. 



CHAP. I. 



WATER-FOWL IN GENERAL. 



IN settling the distinctions among the other 

 classes of birds, tliere 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 toge- 

 ther, present one broad surface to beat back 

 the water, and thus push their bodies along. 

 What man performs by art, nature has sup- 

 plied to water-fowl; and, by broad skins, has 

 webbed their toes together, so that they ex- 

 pand two broad oars to the water ; and thus, 

 moving them alternately, with the greatest 

 ease 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 con- 

 tracts, and does not impede the bird's progres- 

 sive 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 

 swimming : 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 their 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 re- 

 main. 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 coldness of their situation. The old ones, 

 also, have a closer, warmer plumage, than 

 birds of any other class. It is of their feath- 

 ers that our beds are composed ; as they nei- 

 ther mat, nor imbibe humidity, but are fur- 

 nished with an animal-oil that glazes their 

 surface, and keeps each other 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 house- 

 hold economy. The feathers, therefore, of all 

 the penguin kind are totally useless for do- 

 mestic purposes ; as neither boiling nor bleach- 

 ing can divest them of their oily rancidity, 

 Indeed, the rancidity of all new feathers, of 



