A LABRADOR SPRING 
or no muscular effort, yet these same birds 
shot on the wing float on the surface when dead 
as lightly as feathers. Each body feather is 
governed by tiny muscles, and by their action 
the feathers can be depressed so that the large 
amount of air normally held between them is 
expelled, and the body loses its buoyancy. I 
was interested to try the experiment on a 
recently killed eider on this trip on the Labrador 
coast, and found that while the dead body 
floated high in the water, by expelling the air 
from the feathers and replacing it with water 
the bird sank so deeply that only a small 
fraction appeared above the surface. This 
simple experiment, therefore, explains the other- 
wise mysterious power of some water birds to 
sink in the water without apparent leg or wing 
action. After rising to the surface from diving, 
birds usually shake themselves as if to admit 
air to their feathers. 
Among the ducks, old squaws, scoters, and 
eiders, all common Labrador birds, plainly use 
their wings indiving. Once, while watching some 
old squaws sporting in the water and chasing each 
other on or just below the surface, I distinctly 
saw the wing of one of them cut the water from 
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