262 OF WATER FOWL. 



for depredation, and others for a harmless method of 

 life, so, in the tribe we are now describing, some are 

 inoffensive, and live upon insects and vegetables ; and 

 others make fish, and even small birds, their prey. All 

 water-fowl may be divided into three classes : those of 

 the gull-kind, with long legs and round bills, which fly 

 along the surface of the water for the purpose of 

 seizing their prey ; those of the penguin-kind, which 

 have round bills, short wings, and their legs hid in the 

 abdomen, which dive into the stream and catch their 

 unwary food ; those of the goose-kind, with flat broad 

 bills, that subsist upon vegetables and the insect tribe. 



In the first of these classes we shall find the albatross, 

 the cormorant, the gannet, the shag, the frigate bird, 

 the great brown gull, and all those of the lesser kind : 

 these birds have sharp pointed bills, hooked at the end 

 for holding their fishy prey. 



In the second class we shall find the penguin, the ank, 

 the skout, the sea-turtle, the bottle-nose, and the loon : 

 the bodies of these are large and heavy, and their wings 

 so short that they cannot fly ; but their legs and feet 

 are peculiarly formed for diving, or they would find it 

 difficult to obtain any food. 



In the third class, which chiefly feed upon insects 

 and vegetables, we discover the swan, the goose, the 

 duck, the teal, and the wigeon, and all the varieties 

 of their numerous tribe : but we must first give the 

 description of a bird that seems allied to no species, 

 and therefore the pelican must be separately described. 



OF THE PELICAN. 



The pelican of Africa is much larger in the body than 

 a swan, and somewhat of the same colour and shape ; 

 its four toes are all webbed together, and the form of 



