104 HABITS AND INSTINCTS OP ANIMALS. CHAP. IV. 



Natatores, or swimmers. In the former, these motions 

 are only occasional ; while, in the latter, they are con- 

 stant find habitual. The most expert divers, perhaps, 

 are such as have remarkably short wings, as the auks 

 27 and grebes (fig. 27.) ; next to 



which come the divers, properly 

 so called, together with the coots 

 and ducks. The swans and geese 

 rarely immerse more than their 

 head and neck in the water; 

 while the sea ducks, particularly 

 the genus Clangula, are much 

 more expert at diving than those 

 genera which frequent freshwater 

 rivers. In hopping, there are no 

 such marked instances as occur 

 both among quadrupeds and ann%lose animals ; since 

 this motion is never, we believe, carried further than 

 what is seen in the sparrow, and such other perching 

 birds as live both among trees and upon the ground. 

 The most expert climbers are the .parrots and wood- 

 peckers ; while the swiftest walkers and runners are of 

 the rasorial and the grallatorial orders. 



(126.) Quadrupeds can produce, in their different or- 

 ders, examples of all the five principal kinds of motions 

 formerly 'mentioned; although, as in the class of birds, no 

 instance occurs of any one being so highly gifted as to 

 unite them all. Most of the larger animals are slow in 

 their general movements, particularly those endowed 

 with extraordinary strength ; thus, the elephant, though 

 he certainly can run with speed, turns and manoeuvres 

 with the greatest difficulty. The Ursus Arctos, or com- 

 mon bear, is sluggish and heavy : the sharpness of its 

 claws, however, enables it to climb trees with great dex- 

 terity, either in the pursuit of prey, or for the avoidance 

 of its enemies. The Rhinoceros bicornis, though he may 

 be termed swift for his amazing size, is rendered un- 

 wieldy by his great weight, and by the shortness of his 

 legs: and both the dromedary and camel are decidedly 



