The tail is short and forked. It inhabits all America; is commonly on the wing, and skims along the surface to catch the small fish on which it feeds. It is frequently known by the name of the Razor-bill.

THE PENGUIN GENUS

INCLUDES about nine species, which seem to hold the same place in the southern parts of the world as the auks do in the north, neither of them having ever been observed within the tropics. The wings of the larger species do not enable them to rise out of the water, but serve them rather as paddles to help them forward when they attempt to move swiftly, and in a manner walk along the surface of the water. Even the smaller kinds seldom fly by choice; they flutter their wings with the swiftest efforts, without making way; and though they have but a small weight of body to sustain, yet they seldom venture to quit the water, where they are provided with food and protection.

As the wings of the Penguin tribe are unfitted for flight, the legs are still more awkwardly adapted for walking. This whole tribe have all above the knee hid within the belly; and nothing appears but two short legs, or feet, as some would call them, that seem stuck under the rump, and upon which the animal is very awkwardly supported. They seem, when sitting, or attempting to walk, like a dog that has been taught to sit up or to move a minuet. Their short legs drive the body in progression from side to side; and were they not assisted by their wings, they could scarcely move faster than a tortoise.

This awkward position of the legs, which so unqualifies them for living upon land, adapts them admirably for a residence in water; in that, the legs placed behind the moving body, push it forward with greater velocity; and

these birds, like Indian canoes, are the swiftest in the water, by having their paddles in the rear.

They are also covered more warmly all over the body with feathers than any other birds whatever; so that the sea seems entirely their element.

The PATAGONIAN PENGUIN weighs about forty pounds, and is four feet three inches in length. The bill measures four inches and a half, but is slender. The head, throat, and hind part of the neck, are brown; the back of a deep ash colour; and all the under parts white. The MAGELLANIC PENGUIN is about the size of a goose; the upper parts of the plumage are black, and the under white. These birds walk erect with their heads on high, their finlike wings hanging down like arms; so that to see them at a distance, they look like so many children with white aprons. Hence they are said to unite in themselves the qualities of men, fowls, and fishes. Like men, they are upright; like fowls, they are feathered; and, like fishes, they have fin-like instruments, that beat the water before, and serve for all the purposes of swimming rather than flying.

There are CRESTED PENGUINS at Falkland's Island, which are very beautiful birds. This is sometimes called the Hopping Penguin, or Jumping Jack, from the circumstance of its leaping quite out of the water, often to the height of three or four feet, when it meets an obstacle to its course.

At New Zealand there is a species of Penguin, which is not larger than a teal.

All the species feed upon fish; and seldom come ashore, except in the breeding season. Their flesh is rank and fishy; though the sailors say, that it is pretty good eating. In some the flesh is so tough, and the feathers so thick, that they stand the blow of a scimitar without injury.

THE TROPIC BIRD....THE DARTER.

63

The Penguin lays but one egg; and, in frequented shores, is found to burrow like a rabbit: sometimes three or four take possession of one hole, and hatch their young together. The egg of the Penguin is very large for the size of the bird, that of the smaller sorts being generally found bigger than that of a goose.

THE TROPIC BIRD

INCLUDES only three known species, which are all distinguished by a wedge-like tail, the two middle feathers extending a vast length beyond the others.

The COMMON TROPIC BIRD is about the size of a widgeon. The length to the tip of the two long feathers is nearly three feet. The bill is three inches long, and red; the head, neck, and under parts of the body, are quite white: the upper parts of the plumage white also, but marked with black lines. The two middle feathers of the tail measure twenty inches, and project fifteen inches beyond the rest. It takes its name from being chiefly found within the tropics. It frequently flies very high, but generally attends upon the flying fishes in their escape from their watery enemies; and they have now and then been found in calm weather supinely floating on the backs of the drowsy tortoises. Their flesh is not good, but is sometimes eaten by the hungry sailors.

On Palmerston Island there is a BLACK-BILLED TROPIC BIRD; and at Mauritius there is a Tropic Bird with a bill and a tail of a beautiful rose colour.

THE DARTER

Is distinguished by a peculiarly long and slender neck, and includes three species.

The WHITE-BEllied Darter is scarcely so large as a mallard, but its neck is so long that it measures not less

than two feet ten inches. The bill is three inches long, straight, and pointed. The neck is covered with downy soft feathers, of a reddish gray: the upper parts of the plumage are dusky black, dashed with white; the under parts pure silvery white. It is a native of Brazil, and is extremely expert at catching fish.

The BLACK-BEllied Darter* is the size of the common duck. The head, neck, and breast are light brown; the back, scapulars, &c. marked with stripes of black and white; the quill feathers, belly, thighs, tail, are deep black. The four toes are united like those of the corvorant. In the island of Ceylon and Java it sits on the shrubs that hang over the water, and in a country where people are so apprehensive of serpents, it often terrifies the passengers by darting out its long and slender neck, which in their surprise they mistake for the attack of some fatal reptile.

CHAP. VII.

Of Fishes in general... Of cetaceous Fishes... The WHALE... The Fin Fish...The Narwal, or Sea Unicorn... The SPERMACETI WHALE...The DOLPHIN... Grampus, Porpesse, &c.

THE number of fish to which we have given names, and with the figure of which at least we are a little acquainted, is, according to Linnæus, above four hundred. The majority of these are confined to the sea, and would expire in the fresh water, though there are a few which annually swim up the rivers, to deposit their spawn.

Wonderful as it may appear to see creatures existing in a medium so dense that men, beasts, and birds must inev

This bird is an inhabitant of the Carolinas, Georgia, the Floridas, and Louisiana ; and is common in Cayenne and Brazil.—Wilson.

itably perish in it, yet experience proves that, besides those species which we are in the daily habit of seeing, the very depths of the immense ocean contain myriads of animated beings, to whose very form we are almost strangers, and of whose dispositions and manners we are still more ignorant. It is probable, indeed, that the fathomless recesses of the deep contain many kinds of fish that are never seen by man. In their construction, modes of life, and general design, the watery tribes are perhaps still more astonishing than the inhabitants of either the land or air.

The structure of fish, and their adaptation to the element in which they are to live, are eminent proofs of divine wisdom. Most of them have the same external form, sharp at each end, and swelling in the middle, by which configuration they are enabled to traverse their native element with greater ease and swiftness. From their shape, men originally took the idea of those vessels which are intended to sail with the greatest speed; but the progress of the swiftest sailing ship, with the advantage of a favourable wind, is far inferior to that of fish. Ten or twelve miles an hour is no small degree of rapidity in the sailing of a ship; yet any of the larger species of fish would soon overtake her, play round as if she did not move, and even advance considerably before her.

The fins of fish are denominated from their situations. The pectoral fins are placed at a little distance behind the opening of the gills, and are large and strong; and serve as well to balance the body as to assist the motion of the fish. The ventral fins are placed towards the lower part of the body, under the belly, and serve chiefly to raise or depress the fish in the water. The dorsal fins are situated on the ridge of the back, and are very large in flat fish: their use, like the pectoral ones, is to keep the body in equilibrio, as well as to contribute to its progressive motion.