ORDER V.-SWIMMING BIRDS.

NATATORES.

"Some sought their food among the finny shoals,
Swift darting from the clouds, emerging soon

With slender captives glittering in their beaks."-PELICAN ISLAND.

In the birds of this order the bill is variously shaped. The legs short; often placed far behind, adapted for swimming. From the great extent of coast, and the varied character

of the British Islands, the birds of the present order are so numerous as to constitute more than one-fourth of the entire of the native species. They are arranged in five families:

I. The first of these comprises Geese, Swans, and Ducks. The domesticated Swan is, in these countries, the species most generally admired. Who is there who has not paused to gaze upon her arched neck, her graceful swimming movement, and her snowy plumage? It was no wonder that a classic writer referred to Black Swans, in such a manner as to imply his entire disbelief of their existence. Yet Black Swans (Fig. 199) are among those strange creatures, that have been sent to us from New Holland. They

are now distributed over the kingdom, wherever there are menageries of aquatic birds, and form a striking contrast to the snowy tint of the other species.

II. The grebes and the Divers constitute the second family; and a glance at the annexed figure of the Great Northern Diver (Fig. 200) will convey a better idea of their aspect than any verbal description. The Divers, as their name implies, are remarkable for their diving powers, thus: pursuing their prey, and evading their enemies. The bird: figured is a winter visitant, and belongs to a species which may be said to live upon the water, except during the time devoted to the rearing of the young.

III. In the third family is placed the Puffin, a bird common around the coast during the summer months, and from the form of its bill, called "Sea-Par rot and Coulter-neb." Here also must be arranged the Penguin (Fig. 201), whose singular plumage reminds us rather of the scale of the fish than the feathers of a bird. The wings, so powerless for flight, are, however, most efficient as fins. When at sea and fishing, it comes to the surface, for the purpose of breathing, with such a spring, and dives again so instantaneously, that no one could at first sight be sure it was not a fish leaping for sport.

IV. The fourth family is that of the Pelicans. The Pelican is remarkable for the membranous bag attached to the

under side of the bill (Fig. 202), and capacious enough to

hold a good store of fish. The only native birds belonging to this family are the Gannet or Solan Goose (Fig.168), and two species of Cormorant.

V. The fifth

family comprises

the Terns, Gulls,

and Petrels.

The Terns (Fig. 203) are also called sea-swallows, a

term denoting ease and rapidity of flight, and some rescm

blance to the Swallow in other respects, among which the long forked tail is perhaps the most striking. They live upon small fish, and flying some yards above the water, dart down with such quickness and precision as rarely to miss the object of their aim.

The Gulls are, however, better known than either of the other tribes. The mariner finds them in all seas; and the landsman who visits the coast cannot fail to remark their graceful flight, the buoyant ease with which they ride upon the waves, and the animation which they give to the scene Perhaps few ordinary occurrences are more striking than what is termed a "play of gulls;" when the birds, having discovered a shoal of young fish, are swimming among them, hovering over them, uttering wild screams of joy, plunging down into the midst of the shoal, and gorging their prey with riotous delight.

In the building of the nests, gulls do not confine themselves to the rocks and cliffs of the sea-shore; many retired inland localities are favourite places of resort. In Norfolk, at a distance of thirty miles from the sea, thousands of the Black-headed Gull (Fig. 204) annually take possession of an island of about thirty acres in extent, and build their nests. In the north of Ireland, the Black-headed Gulls frequent the gravelly beach of a portion of Ram's Island in Lough Neagh, for the same purpose.

Of the Petrels, the best known species is that which is the smallest of British web-footed birds, the Stormy Petrel.