Page:Natural History, Birds.djvu/312

Rh The plumage is filamentous or downy, but yet remarkably dense and close lying, and has a silvery or satiny gloss, particularly on the under parts of the body.

The food of the Divers consists, according to their size and the situations they frequent, of fishes with their fry and spawn, crustacea, water-insects, tadpoles, and perhaps vegetable substances occasionally. Their geographical distribution is extensive, though the number of known species is small; the Grebes are widely scattered over the fresh waters of the globe, but the Loons are confined to the temperate and arctic oceans and their coasts.

In the Loons or true Divers, the beak is long, strong, straight, compressed, and pointed; the edges cutting, but not notched: the nostrils, on each side of the base, are perforated, and partly closed by a membrane. The legs axe thin, the tarsi compressed, placed far back, and closely attached to the hinder part of the body; the feet large, amply webbed, the outer toe longest: the hind toe jointed upon the tarsus, small; the wings short, the first quill-feather longest; the tail short and rounded.

The habits of these birds are peculiarly marine; they are at home amidst the desolation of the polar seas, on whose wild and frost-bound shores and islands they rear their young, laying their eggs on the bare ground. The general colours of their plumage are black and white, the latter arranged in beautifully regular rows of spots, which are commonly lost in winter.