134 WILD LII-'K IN CHINA. 



their evolutions below. What the swallow and the tern can 

 do in the air, the clumsy cormorant can do below the water. 

 He becomes transfigured into a perfect embodiment of grace. 

 He passes through his aqueous environment as if it were 

 ether. The rapidity of his motion makes his plumage, none 

 too well fitting in the air, sit as though every feather had 

 been glued in position and then ironed. He darts: he turn:-, 

 with lightning speed; his long beak, head, and neck explore 

 the recesses of a patch of weeds. Sure enough, there are 

 fish at home. They dart, too, here, there, everywhere: but 

 all to no purpose. As well might a screaming blackbird hope 

 to escape the stooping hawk. They are overtaken one by 

 one, not as a terrier overtakes rats to be nipped, killed, and 

 left, but to be held in the capacious beak and throat till nature 

 demands a new supply of air. 



Students of biology will remember that there is direct 

 connexion in the long line of evolution between reptiles 

 and birds. During the Jurassic period there were evolvec 

 immense bird-like reptiles, and from them, in course of time, 

 our modern bird life has come. To-day, I know of no closer 

 connexion in outward appearance between the avian anc 

 reptilian forms than is to be seen in the Darters, first cousins 

 to the cormorants, one species of which Plotus Melattogaster, 

 is, I believe, not altogether unknown in Far Eastern waters. 

 So snake-like are these birds, especially when their body is 

 submerged, and only their long neck and head visible on the 

 surface, that they have been repeatedly mistaken for snakes, 

 so repeatedly as to gain the name "Snake-birds." There is 

 a drawing in "The Encyclopaedia Britannica" of an Indiar 

 whip-snake in which the head and neck resemblance to that 

 of a darter is unmistakeable. Darters are even more rapid 

 in their under-water movements than cormorants. So far 

 as I know they are the only birds that bayonet their prey, 

 driving their sharp bill right through the body instead of 

 grasping it. Coming to the surface with their transfixed 

 prey, they free themselves with a shake of the head and 

 swallow at pleasure. 



Of the same genus, though wide asunder as the poles in 

 appearance, are the pelicans, those immense clumsy creatures 

 which, being a full eight or more feet in length at their best, 

 are half as much again in width from tip to tip of wing! 

 The great distinguishing feature of the pelican is its pouch, 

 dependent from the lower mandible. This, it must be 

 remembered, is very largely under muscular control, which 

 fact accounts for its apparent variation in size from a ba^ 

 capable of containing a couple of gallons of water to a slight 

 swelling below the bill. Many are the curious traditions 

 connected with the pelican. Because its yellow bill has a red 



