N AT AT ORES. 
INTRODUCTION. 
“ Watchful and agile, uttering voices wild 
And harsh, yet in accordance with the waves 
Upon the beach, the winds in caverns moaning, 
Or winds and waves abroad upon the water. 
Some sought their food among the finny shoals, 
Swift darting from the clouds, emerging soon 
With slender captives glittering in their beaks ; 
These in recesses of steep crags constructed 
Their eyries inaccessible, and train’d 
Their hardy broods to forage in all weathers.” 
“ As Naturalists and believers in the unerring wisdom so 
greatly and wonderfully displayed throughout the animated 
creation, we are not to judge of their qualities from the exag- 
gerations of fancy, but to consider whether their powers are not 
fitly and beautifully adapted to the places they are destined to 
fill in the great chain of the universe. Viewed in this the only 
true light, we shall find much to admire, since their instincts 
and habits are in such perfect accordance with, and so ably 
support the economy of tlieir being.” — Selby. 
We have now to describe the remaining British 
genera which compose the Natatores or Swimmers, 
generally considered as the concluding Order among 
Birds, and whose whole life and business is among 
the waters. From the insular character of our lands, 
