275 
CHAPTEE XXI. 
PLUNGERS : PETRELS, &C. THE CINEREOUS AND MANX SHEAR- 
WATERS • — bulwer's, leach's, Wilson's, and the common 
STORM PETRELS. 
TTTE have now reached the last of the three great 
divisions into which aquatic birds are divided. The 
MersatoreSj or Plungers, which order, as far as our present 
review of British birds is concerned, is divided into three 
families, as we shall presently see. 
Macgillivray has given such a vivid and truthful picture 
of the general habits of the birds of this order, that often 
as we have quoted from his delightful ' History,' we cannot 
refrain from placing this before our readers ; the more es- 
pecially as our notice of the individual members of the 
order must be extremely brief — a mere catalogue, in fact. 
Among the numerous birds that seek their subsistence in or upon 
the waters, and are fitted for an aquatic life by having their toes 
connected by a thin and pHant induplicature of the skin, converting 
their feet into paddles, are many which, roaming abroad over the 
face of tlje ocean, or following the sinuosities of its shores, pick up 
their food from its surface, or by plunging or dipping into it, without 
pursuing their prey into its depths. They are of lighter construction 
than the other sea-birds, with more plumage in proportion to their 
bulk, and furnished with wings of large size, generally elongated 
and narrow, which enable them to perform a more varied and 
extended flight, and to accomplish with ease all the evolutions 
frequently necessary to them. Sitting lightly on the water, chiefly 
for repose, they swim with ease, but not with speed at all approaching 
to the diving-birds, and none of them are capable of sinking or 
propelling themselves into the water from its surface. Their food 
consists of fishes, Crustacea, mollusca, and other animals, the larger 
feeding also in the manner of vultures on dead cetacea, land mam- 
s 2 
