150 WEB-F££T. 



PALMIPEDES. 



Palmipedes, or webbed-footed birds, form Cuviers 

 last order of this class ; and in so far as that they can 

 launch themselves upon the waters, and be in their 

 element there, they are a natural order. But they 

 are not the only birds which can swim, for some of 

 those of the former order can swim readily, and 

 others can do it occasionally, although their feet are 

 not webbed, but have only partial membranes, more 

 or less produced, attached to their toes. 



If we were to take a regular gradation in the birds 

 of this order from those which have the feet the least 

 adapted for acting upon the water, to those which 

 have them the most so, we should begin v\ith those 

 which have the toes only lobed and margined, and 

 proceed to those which have all the four toes united 

 by one membrane or web. But the other active 

 systems of the birds interfere with this arrangement, 

 and their varying powers of flight interfere with the 

 classification which otherwise might be founded on 

 the structure of the feet, and render it imperfect. 



Aquatic birds have wings of very varied structure. 

 Some have about the longest and most powerful ones 

 of all the feathered tribes ; others have them short and 

 round, and some are almost wingless, though there is 

 no sea-bird so completely so as the apteryx. Their 

 wings are also used for very varied purposes. Some 

 use them habitually in feeding ; some in ranging the 

 jjurface of the ocean ; and some chiefly for migration 

 from place to place, as changes of season and of food 

 may require. 



Their bills vary nearly as much in structure. 

 Some have the form of spears for transfixing fishes, 

 upon which the birds dash from a considerable 



