VARIOUS PARTS OF NATURE 327 



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, inclining 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 intermediate line, the line of the 

 body. 



Most people know, that have observed at all, that the swimming 

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

 foot succeeds 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 observe 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 impedes 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. 



This colymbus was of considerable bulk, weighing only three 

 drachms short of three pounds avoirdupois. It measured in 

 length from the bill to the tail (which was very short) two feet, 

 and to the extremities of the toes, four inches more ; and the 

 breadth of the wings expanded was 42 inches. A person at- 

 tempted to eat the body, but found it very strong and rancid, as 

 is the flesh of all birds living on fish. Divers or loons, though 

 bred in the most northerly parts of Europe, yet are seen with us 

 in very severe winters ; and on the Thames are called sprat loons, 

 because they prey much on that sort of fish. 



The legs of the colymbi and mergi are placed so very backward, 

 and so out of all center of gravity, that these birds cannot walk 

 at all. They are called by Linnaeus compedes, because they move 

 on the ground as if shackled or fettered. 



