Song Birds and Water Fowl 



Thus at the bottom of the circle we find them 

 insensibly merged, and the same is true at the 

 top. In this latter case, we find a needfijl cor- 

 rection of a natural supposition, from reading 

 the usual tabular list of birds in scientific works, 

 that the last of the water fowl are of all the 

 class least like the land birds ; whereas we find 

 a gradual approximation toward the character- 

 istics of the aerial terrestrial division, and ex- 

 pressed by the popular names of some aerial 

 water species, such as "sea-pigeon," "sea-swal- 

 low," "sea-dove," etc. The converging lines 

 of the two distinct natures are finely gathered 

 into one in the "sea eagles" of Africa, the 

 East Indies, and elsewhere, the grandest of that 

 kingly race being perhaps the enormous sea 

 eagle of Kamtchatka. 



In the somewhat arbitrary adoption of a 

 boundary-line between these two great classes, 

 we may as well agree with the scientist, who 

 gives to our gamey firiend " bob- white " the 

 credit or disgrace of bringing up the rear in the 

 long terrestrial procession. Crossing that im- 

 aginary line, which to the ornithologist is as 

 true a fiction as are the equator and arctic cir- 

 cles to the geographer, we now pass over to the 

 more numerous and more clearly defined groups 



78 



