172 
mmg with grace and facility. Their food 
consists of fish, insects, shell-fish, vegeta- 
bles and grain. Some procure their food 
by plunging their long necks under water, 
others search for it by diving, and are able 
to remain a considerable time under water. 
The greater part of them dive when close- 
ly pursued. 
Many of the species are very difficult to 
identify, and it is not astonishing that 
many errors were committed, when the 
outward appearance was considered as the 
only guide. Montagu has thrown much 
new light upon the subject, and proved 
by endeavouring to domesticate many of 
the species, not before attempted, that 
the young males in most species, continue 
to resemble the female parent during 
the first season, and even that the adult 
males in some of the species moult twice 
in the year, and are at each moulting, 
so different in plumage, that it would 
be impossible to consider them as belong- 
ing to the same species, were they taken 
at those times in a state of Nature. 
In the present work where it may be in 
