546 CLASS AVES. 



of air to penetrate the water, and surround it when there. 

 This process has, in all probability, some relation with that of 

 the hydrophilous, and other aquatic insects, which are always 

 observed to be in the middle of a bubble of air. If this fact 

 can serve to explain the cincle''s mode of respiration under 

 water, it cannot explain the cause of its feathers being im- 

 permeable by water ; but, independently of their thickness, 

 they are provided with a fatty substance, hke those of ducks. 

 On plunging one of these birds into a vessel full of water, it 

 was observed that the water fell back in globules, without 

 wetting the feathers. 



The cincle is never met with its female but in the season of 

 reproduction, at which season they construct their nest on the 

 ground, often near mill-wheels, with blades of grass, small dry 

 roots, and dead leaves. It is covered with a vaulted dome, 

 and its aperture is furnished with moss. The female lays four 

 or five whitish eggs, an inch long, and six lines in diameter at 

 the thick end. A figure of the cincle is to be found in Lewin's 

 British Birds, but not a very good one. 



Of the genus Philedon, the species are very numerous, and 

 appertain to Australasia, but nothing sufficiently interesting is 

 known concerning their habits to merit insertion here. 



The Grakles {Martins , Fr. gracula) have been very much 

 mixed by different authors in various genera. We shall here 

 consider only those which our author has designated Martins. 



These birds, all of which appertain to the old Continent, 

 have the manners of the stares, and live like them in large 

 flocks. M. Le Vaillant observes, in his work on the birds of 

 Africa, that, in a great portion of France, Germany, and Hol- 

 land, the people are in the habit of applying this name {Mar- 

 tins) to the stares which are brought up in cages, as they do 

 that of Margot to the pies, and that of Jacquot to the parro- 

 quets ; and he concludes, that if they give the name Martin 

 m India to birds which have the habits of the stares, it is most 

 likely to have been introduced by the first Europeans who visited 



