﻿162 ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS. 



a foot is more adapted for swimming than that of the 

 penguin ; and yet it is asserted hy voyagers that these 

 latter birds swim with such amazing rapidity that they 

 will pursue and overtake even fishes ; upon which; in- 

 deed, they chiefly live. This fact would be perfectly 

 incredible, did it not explain indirectly the true use of 

 the abortive wings of these singular birds, which being 

 used as fins, gives them this superiority of swimming 

 over all other birds ; and confers upon them the pos- 

 session of four members for this express purpose, when 

 all other birds have only two. That law of nature per- 

 vading every part of the animal creation, which pre- 

 serves the balance of powers and of faculties, by giving 

 additional power to one organ, if another is unusually 

 weak, is no where more strikingly and wonderfully dis- 

 played than in the penguin and the frigate pelican (Ta- 

 chipetes). The one is, perhaps, the longest, and the 

 other the shortest, winged bird in creation, and yet it is 

 in these very members that the law in question is de- 

 monstrated. The feet of both birds, upon land, can do 

 no more than barely support the body ; but, to com- 

 pensate for this apparent deficiency, nature has thrown 

 such additional powers into their wings, that all other 

 birds must confess their own inferiority. And yet these 

 powers are of a totally different kind ; nay, they are the 

 very antipodes of each other. The penguins would 

 seem to make their way under water with almost the 

 same celerity as the swallow does in the air ; but this 

 is entirely owing to the peculiar structure of their wings. 

 In the air the bird is utterly helpless, and would fall to 

 the ground like a lump of lead. Now the Tachipetes 

 has a foot even still more useless for all other purposes 

 than the penguin ; it is fully as short, yet the mem- 

 brane between the toes, from scarcely reaching to the 

 first joint, precludes the bird from swimming : its foot, 

 in short, like that of the humming-bird, is a mere in- 

 strument of rest to support the body. How then, it 

 may be asked, does the bird live. It may almost be 

 said to live in the air. Its immense extent of wing, 



