104 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Conformation of the web- footed. 



on a long voyage, every thing that has life seems 

 good to be eaten ; and we often find them re- 

 commending those animals, as dainties, which 

 they themselves would spurn at, after a course of 

 good living. Nothing is more common in their 

 journals than such accounts as these. ' This 

 day we shot a fox pretty good eating : this day 

 we shot a heron pretty good eating : and thi* 

 day we killed a turtle' which they rank with the 

 heron and the fox s as pretty good eating/ 

 Their accounts, therefore, of the flesh of these 

 birds, are not to be depended upon; and when 

 they cry up the heron or the stork of other coun- 

 tries as luxurious food, we must always attend to 

 the state of their appetites, who give the cha- 

 racter." 



Those who have remarked the feet or toes of a 

 duck, will easily conceive how admirably the- 

 web-footed fowl are formed for making way in 

 the water. When men swim they do not open 

 the fingers, so as to let the fluid pass through 

 them; but closing them together present one 

 broad surface to beat back the water, and thus 

 push their bodies along. What man performs 

 by art, nature has supplied to water-fowl ; and > 

 by broad skins, has webbed their toes together/ 

 so that they expand two broad oars to the water; 

 and thus, moving them alternately with the 

 greatest ease paddle along. We must, observe 

 also, that the toes are so contrived, that as they 

 strike backward, their broadest hollow surface 



