ORDER PALMIPEDES. 643 



saries, they plunge their body into the water. Though small, 

 marine animals, mucilaginous zoophytes, and fish spawn con- 

 stitute their principal food, they will also swallow very large 

 fishes. They are indeed so voracious, that they may be 

 caught with a line and a hook, baited in the rudest manner 

 with a piece of sheep''s skin. They experience some diffi- 

 culty in rising to their flight, and then strike the water 

 rapidly with their feet, and clap with their wings ; but after 

 this impulsion, the wings remain developed, and they do 

 nothing but balance themselves alternately from right to left, 

 shaving the surface of the water with rapidity, and plunging 

 in their heads now and then in search of their food to a cer- 

 tain depth. Their flight is never elevated, except in foid 

 weather ; and when they are borne along by the wind, they 

 proceed to very great distances from the land, and repose 

 and sleep upon the water. Their cry has some analogy with 

 the braying of an ass. 



These birds inhabit the Austral Seas, from the Cape of 

 Good Hope as far as New Holland ; many of them are found 

 between the islands of ice in those seas, from the 50th de- 

 gree of latitude, as far as the solid ice by which they are 

 bounded, under the 65th or 66lh degree. They also appear 

 in larffe flocks, towards the end of June, on the coasts of 

 Kamtschatka, Avhere they precede the bands of migratory 

 fishes. The sea of Ochtok and Behring's Island are the cli- 

 mates where they are most abundant. They are very lean 

 on their first arrival there ; but the nutriment which they 

 find in abundance at the mouths of rivers, soon causes them 

 to recover their flesh, during the six weeks which they pass 

 there. They devour fish with so much gluttony, that often 

 one half of the body remains outside of their bill, until the 

 part which is swallowed being dissolved by digestion, leaves 

 a passage for the rest. They are often gorged to that degree 

 as to be unable to fly, or to escape the boats which pursue 



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