100* NATURALIST'S CABINET*. 



Cloven, finned, and webbed feet. 



kind ; those with finned feet, as the snipe kind : 

 and those with webbed feet, as the duck kind ; 

 this division, indeed, has some claims to be ob- 

 served as correct, since those belonging to each 

 part have general and distinct properties; far 

 instance, the waders, or cloven-footed water 

 fowls, are in general tall, light and though with 

 long tails and necks, yet well proportioned ; 

 while the web-footed are of a squat make, with a 

 waddling gait ; their legs placed far behind, and 

 the length of their necks out of all proportion. 

 Those with finned feet constitute, as it were, a 

 middle race, being calculated both for swimming 

 and wading, and partake of the nature of both. 

 The cloven-footed lay their eggs on the ground, 

 and make no nests. Those with pinnated feet 

 form large nests in the water or near it ; and the 

 web-footed fowl deposit their eggs sometimes on 

 lofty cliffs, or inaccessible promontories, or else 

 concealed in the rushes, bushes, &c. near the wa- 

 ter. Of the general characteristics of this species 

 a celebrated author has thus ably observed: 

 " The progressions of Nature from one class of 

 beings to another are always by slow and almost 

 imperceptible degrees. She has peopled the 

 woods and the fields with a variety of the most 

 beautiful birds; and to leave no part fof her ex- 

 tensive territories untenanted, she has stocked the 

 waters with its feathered inhabitants also; she 

 has taken the same care in providing for the 

 wants of her animals in this element, as she ha* 



