BOOK vir. 



OF WATER-FOWL. 



CHAP. I. 



WATER-FOWL IN GENERAL. 



In settling the distinctions among the other classes of birds, 

 there was some difficulty ; one tribe encroached so nearly upon 

 the nature and habitudes of another, that it was not easy to 

 draw the line which kept them asundtr: but in waterfowl, 

 nature has marked them for us by a variety of indelible charac- 

 ters ; so that it would be almost as unlikely to mistake a land- 

 fowl for one adapted for living and swimming among the waters, 

 as a fish for a bird. 



The first great distinction in this class appears in the toes, 

 which are webbed together for swimming. Those who have 

 remarked the feet or toes of a duck, will easily conceive how 

 admirably they are formed for making way in the water. When 

 men swim, they do not open the fingers, so as to let the fluid 

 pass through them ; but closing them together, present one 

 broad surface to beat back the water, and thus push their bodies 

 along. What man performs by art, nature has supplied to water- 

 fowl ; and, by broad skins, has webbed their toes together, so 

 that they expand two broad oars to the water ; and thus, moving 

 them alternately, with the greatest ease paddle along. We must 

 observe also, that the toes are so contrived, that as they strike 

 backward, their broadest hollow surface beats the water ; but as 

 they gather them in again, for a second blow, their front surface 

 contracts, and does not impede the bird's progressive motion. 



As their toes are webbed in the most convenient manner, so 

 are their legs also made most fitly for swift progression in the 



