376 NATATORES. 



muscles. Indeed, the chief fault in animals, and also in the 

 human figure, consists in making too much of the muscles 

 giving such equal action to the antagonist ones, that the 

 figure could not possible move, and thus indicating paralysis 

 rather than action. In birds, the form of the muscles is not 

 seen, or indicated in any way but by the general outline ; 

 and thus, whatever shape may be given to the figure, the idea 

 of motion must be wholly supplied by the imagination of the 

 spectator ; and it is. only a little farther stretch of that ima- 

 gination, to suppose the bird which is represented in a stat<> 

 of quietude to get up and fly. 



As is the case with the more powerful of the accipitres, 

 this most powerful of the skuas inhabits the cold latitudes. 

 It is found in all parts of the northern seas within and near 

 the polar circle ; and it is also found in the south. New 

 Holland and Africa are situated rather near the tropics for 

 its habits ; but Cook met with it while skirting the polar 

 ice, and Captain P. P. King found it abundant while recently 

 exploring the southern extremity of the American continent.* 

 Though rather discursive in its habits, it is not very often 

 seen on the southern shores of England ; it is, however, very 

 common in the Northern Isles, in some of which the people 

 call it the herdsman, from a notion that it protects the young 

 of their flocks from the eagle. This may, in part, be ima- 

 gination ; but the birds are very powerful both in the wings 

 and the beak. They are, in the breeding time, as bold as 

 they are powerful ; they charge en masse, and they charge in 

 a manner against which the eagle is not well prepared for 

 defence. Though their claws are strong and much hooked, 

 more especially that on the inner toe, yet the webs prevent 

 them from acting so efficiently as the free toes of the acci- 



* It is most probable, as Mr. Gould observes, that the Skua gull of 

 the Southern Seas, which he figures in his "Birds of Australia," will 

 prove to be distinct from the European species. M. 



