GREAT SPECKLED DIVER, OR LOON. 271 



home alive. On examination it proved to be colymbus glacialis 

 Linn., the great speckled diver or loon, which is most excellently 

 described in Willoughby's Ornithology. 



Every part and proportion of this bird is so incomparably 

 adapted to its mode of life, that in no instance do we see the wisdom 

 of God in the creation to more advan- 

 tage. The head is sharp and smaller 

 than the part of the neck adjoining, in 

 order that it may pierce the water ; the 

 wings are placed forward and out of 

 the centre of gravity for a purpose 

 which shall be noticed hereafter ; ______ 



the thighs quite at the podeX, in ~GrTat Speckled Diver, or Loon. 



order to facilitate diving , and the legs are flat, and as 

 sharp backwards almost as the edge of a knife, that in striking 

 they may easily cut the water : while the feet are palmated, and 

 broad for swimming, yet so folded up when advanced forward to 

 take a fresh stroke, as to be full as narrow as the shank. The 

 two exterior toes of the feet are longest ; the nails flat and broad, 

 resembling the human, which give strength and increase the 

 power of swimming. The foot, when expanded, is not at right 

 angles to the leg or body of the bird : but the exterior part in- 

 clining towards the head forms an acute angle with the body ; 

 the intention being not to give motion in the line of the legs 

 themselves, but by the combined impulse of both in an inter- 

 mediate line, the line of the body. 



Most people know, that have observed at all, that the swim- 

 ming of birds is nothing more than a walking in the water, 

 where one foot suceeds the other as on the land ; yet no one, as 

 far as I am aware, has remarked that diving fowls, while under 

 water, impel and row themselves forward by a motion of their 

 wings, as well as by the impulse of their feet : but such is really 

 the case, as any person may easily be convinced, who will ob- 

 serve ducks when hunted by dogs in a clear pond. Nor do I 

 know that any one has given a reason why the wings of diving 

 fowls are placed so forward : doubtless, not for the purpose of 

 promoting their speed in flying, since that position certainly im- 

 pedes it ; but probably for the increase of their motion under 

 water, by the use of four oars instead of two ; yet were the wings 

 and feet nearer together, as in land-birds, they would, when in 

 action, rather hinder than assist one another. 



