lit W A T E R B I R D S. 



The great fea-fwallow is thirteen inches from the bill to the toes ; fix- 

 teen to the end of the tail, wings extended two feet, his fhape elegant ; 

 his head black ; his upper parts grey ; his front white. They digeft their 

 food almoft as foon as taken, for it melts in their gullet ; the lower part 

 next the fbomach firft, even while perhaps the tail fticks out of the mouth. 

 The female lays two or three eggs on the bare fands ; and it is remarked, 

 that when the weather is warm, the egg firrt laid comes to maturity one 

 day fooner than that laid fecond, as the fecond does one day fooner than 

 the third : fuch efFed has the warmth of the fand on thofe firft laid : but 

 if the weather be gloomy and chilly, no fuch effe<5t occurs, but all three 

 are hatched together. The young are covered with a thick down, and arc 

 perpetually crying for food, which the parents Ihower on them from on 

 high ; are fix weeks before they fly. 



The little fea-fwallow is but the fize of a lark ; which is its conftant, 

 and almoft only diftinftion from the former. There are feveral other 

 ^kinds in foreign parts ; but clofely allied in plumage and manners. 



THE TROPIC BIRDS 



ARE of natures very different from thofe which inhabit the ex- 

 tremes of the globe, and to which eternal fnows are not only fa- 

 miliar, but friendly j thefe, on the contrary, inhabit only the central di- 

 vifion of the earth, nor ever quit the torrid zone, where the orb of day 

 ihines in full fplendor : hence their appearance is to navigators a cer- 

 tain indication of their approach to the line, and the name of Tropic 

 birds is impofed on them by general confenr. They are found on the 

 fea at vaft diftances from land, and on illands, remote from either con- 

 tinent, as well in the Atlantic Ocean as in the South Seas. 



Befides a powerful and rapid flight, thefe birds have the faculty of 

 repofing on the water ; and perhaps of fleeping on it. Their feet are 

 entirely united by a membrane j they can perch on trees j they rcfemblc 

 fea-fwallows in their length of wings, which trofs each other over the 

 tail when folded. Are about the fize of a pigeon ; plumage ftrikingly 

 white J but are at once diftinguifliable by a long double fliaft of feathers, 

 as if a ftraw was ftuck in its tail j and from this fome have given them' 

 the name offtraw-iails. This double (haft is compofed of two thin ftems, 



each 



