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Rh off water unwetted. The secretion of fat in most of these birds is copious, and it is peculiarly oily in its character. They are the only birds, as Cuvier remarks, in which the neck is longer than the legs, which is sometimes the case to a considerable extent, for the purpose of enabling them to search for food in the depths below, while they swim on the surface. The tail is commonly very short, as are also the wings; hence flight is feebly performed; and in some genera is altogether denied. It must, however, be observed, that in this Order are found the longest wings and the highest powers of flight of the whole class, in the Frigate Pelican; the Petrels and the Terns also are remarkable for their great length of wing: it is remarkable that all these birds, though web-footed, are never seen to swim, though some of them dive or rather plunge with facility.

The flesh of many of the species is extensively used and esteemed as the food of man; that of some, with their eggs, forming a main source of support to many hardy islanders. A few species have been domesticated in our waters and our poultry-yards.

Fens and morasses, broad rivers, and inland lakes, creeks, and estuaries, rocky coves, and muddy bays, precipitous islets and ledgy cliffs, the sinuous coasts of continents and islands, and the broad expanse of the horizon-bound ocean, are the resorts of the web-footed fowl. They are more numerous, particularly the marine kinds, in the colder seas both of the north and south, than in the tropical regions. Our own islands possess a very large number, almost one-third of the species marked as British belonging to this Order.