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( 79 ) 



WATER-BIRDS. 



7 A T E R - B I R D S enjoy at once the land^ the air, and the waters ; 

 / not indeed that they feek the land, but at a time when neceflity 

 impels them ; nor that they wing the air, but to attain fome fituation 

 othcrwife inprafticable. The water is their abode; here they feed, they 

 reft, and often fleep ; and to this they train their offspring in their ear- 

 lieft powers. Tempefts and ftorms are familiar to them ; with the rifing 

 and the falling billows they rife and fall; fport in the dafhing fpray, 

 and view, without alarm, the rolling gulph. Many of them traverfe the 

 vaft ocean, and are found hundreds of leagues from fhore j others inha- 

 bit rocks, and are attached to the furrounding feas. Some prefer tempe- 

 rate climates ; others (and thofe the greater number) choofe frozen dwel- 

 lings, floats of ice, or fhores benumbed with froft: where not the 

 Greenland bear, nor the morfe, nor the whale inhabits, thither retreat 

 many kinds of birds ; only difturbcd by the apprehenfion of too long 

 night, and only quitting the extremes of the globe, as darknefs fpreads 

 itfelf around their dwellings. To enjoy a few hours of light, they follow 

 the fun with reludlance, and with joy precede his annual vifits to their 

 polar abodes. 



Water-fowl are peaceable among themfelves, and have no tyrants of 

 their own kind to dread; but often their chace proves dangerous, and, 

 inftead of taking their prey, they become vidims : large fifli draw 

 them under water; whales, and cachalots, open the gulphs of their 

 enormous throats, not only for flioals of herrings, or mackarel, but for 

 flights of birds that follow them. Water-fowl have among them no 

 birds of fong ; for what is melody among the waves ? What the modu- 

 lations of Philomel herfelf among the boifterous roar of the agitated 

 deep ? Loudnefs and ftrength that may be audible from afar, though lefs 

 brilliant, are moft ufeful. 



Water-fowl are always mod plenty where fifli abounds; and often 

 tv.'o fides of an ifland ihall be remarkable, one for the abundance, the 

 other for the fcarciry, of birds, from this caufe. 



Few water-fowl, in proportion to other kinds, are tamed ; and thofe 

 which man has adopted, are rather captives than domeftics; for being 

 incapable of bearing confinement, they enjoy a partial liberty, if no more, 



O a and 



