Song Birds and Water Fowl 



cant variety of physical types to be found 

 among them. It is true, there are some differ- 

 ences in form and figure among the various 

 land groups, and these differences become still 

 more evident upon prolonged acquaintance. 

 Yet the " build " of all the land birds is vastly 

 more uniform than that of water birds, whose 

 variety of appearance, even to the most careless 

 observer, is very striking. We have strong 

 proof of this greater variety in type among 

 water birds in the fact, first, that while the 

 land birds of North America, comprising two- 

 thirds of the entire avifauna, are arranged in 

 six orders — which, in the main, conform to 

 the most conspicuous differences in figure — the 

 water birds, only half as numerous, are divided 

 into seven orders. But this expresses only a 

 small part of the truth. For, not only are the 

 six orders of land birds far more nearly uni- 

 form in figure than the seven orders of water 

 fowl, but the vast majority of all land birds 

 usually seen by the field ornithologist belong to 

 only two or three orders, wherein, too, the 

 differences of type are quite inconspicuous; 

 while the greatest departure from the general 

 type is among a small number that are com- 

 paratively infrequent. 



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