ORDER PALMirEDES. 657 



many hundreds of leagues. These birds have a mode of fly- 

 ing which is peculiar to themselves. They appear, from a 

 sort of trembling, to be extenuated with fatigue, and on the 

 point of falling. They drop down from a considerable height, 

 abandoning themselves to their weight, and seize the fish 

 without diving. But when they pursue the flying-fish, 

 which constitute their principal aliment, they shave the sur- 

 face of the water. When they perceive a vessel, they come 

 to reconnoitre it, hovering above its head. It has been 

 reported, that if a red flag be placed upon the mast, the phae- 

 tons will approach and peck at it ; but the mariners of the 

 Uranie, under Captain Freycinet, tried this experiment to no 

 purpose. Nevertheless, at the Island of Bourbon, these 

 birds were attracted on the strand, merely by waving a hand- 

 kerchief of this colour. 



The tropic-birds, like the corvorants, perch on the highest 

 trees ; and it is supposed that when they are at a very con- 

 siderable distance from all land, they are enabled, by means 

 of their completely palmated feet, to repose upon the sea. 

 They make their nests in the holes of precipitous rocks, or in 

 the hollows of trees. The young, yet in the nest, gathered up 

 in a ball, and covered with a down of the most brilliant white, 

 have a resemblance to powder puffs. 



Of the long tail feathers, (sometimes twenty-four inches,) 

 the Otaheitans make plumes for their warriors ; and the 

 Caribs used to pass them through the cartilage of the nose, 

 to render themselves more handsome, or more terrible. 



Of the family of Lamellirostres, the first is the well- 

 known genus Anas, which we shall consider in its sub- 

 divisions. 



The Swans, whose domain is the waters, and of which they 

 constitute the finest ornament, live on rivers, ponds, and lakes. 

 Grains, roots, and the different parts of aquatic plants, con- 

 stitute their principal nourishment. Accordingly, the coecum, 



VOL. VIII. u V 



