NATURAL HISTORY. 



Sub-family/. Fuligulincc. 

 SOMATERIA. (Gr. I,u(za, the body ; retpu, to wear away.) 



Mollis.-ima (Lat. very soft), tl<e Eider Duck. 



is then robbed until the Eider is reduced to laying its eggs 

 on the down fiorn the male bird. It is common in the north 

 of Europe, Iceland, and the Hebrides. 



THE CRESTED GREBE. 



The COLYMBID.E are remarkable for their powers of diving. 

 The legs are placed very far behind, and the toes are so 

 arranged as to fold up when returning from the stroker. 



The foot of the GREBES is not webbed like that of most 

 water birds, but each toe is separate and flattened so as to 

 serve as a separate paddle, the Grebes dive so instantane- 

 ously that it is difficult to shoot them, as they dive at the 

 flash, and do not reappear for nearly two hundred yards, and 

 then they merely raise their head above water for a second, 

 and again disappear. 



All the Grebes feed upon fishes and the various water 

 insects, but their stomachs are almost invariably found to 



