Song Birds and Water Fowl 



eral species, is not found in our avifauna, be- 

 ing confined to the coast of the Southern Ocean. 



Going not only on, but beneath the water, 

 we find the 



Diving Group. — Some species have a re- 

 markable facility for remaining under water a 

 long time, and of swimming rapidly and a long 

 distance while submerged, either by using 

 simply their webbed feet, or, in some cases, by 

 the additional use of the wings. This ability 

 serves the double purpose of capturing their 

 prey, and of escaping from danger. One 

 family of the swimming group — the mergansers 

 — has this faculty to some degree, but it is 

 most conspicuous in those families that are 

 distinctively called "divers." These include 

 the great northern loon, which is able to swim 

 many fathoms deep in water. Grebes are 

 another family, a sort of diminutive loon, and 

 still another are sea-parrots, already referred to. 

 One by one, species become extinct, without 

 any known cause, and the most notable instance 

 of this in recent years is that of the great auk, 

 another species of diver, which is supposed to 

 have disappeared about forty years ago. The 

 few skins and eggs of this bird that remain 

 command a fabulous price, one skin, and a poor 



go 



