320 OBSER VA TIONS ON BIRDS, 



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 

 forty-two inches. A person attempted 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 they 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 centre 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. WHITE. 



These accurate and ingenious observations, tending to set 

 forth in a proper light the wonderful works of God in the 

 creation, and to point out His wisdom in adapting the sin- 

 gular form and position of the limbs of this bird to the 

 particular mode in which it is destined to pass the greatest 

 part of its life in an element much denser than the air, do 

 Mr. White credit, not only as a naturalist, but as a man 

 and as a philosopher, in the truest sense of the word, in my 

 opinion ; for were we enabled to trace the works of nature 

 minutely and accurately, we should find, not only that 

 every bird, but every creature, was equally well adapted to 

 the purpose for which it was intended ; though this fitness 

 and propriety of form is more striking in such animals as 

 are destined to any uncommon mode of life. 



I have had in my possession two birds, which, though of 

 a different genus, bear a great resemblance to Mr. White's 



