Page:Natural History, Birds.djvu/316

Rh held out behind, like those of the Waders in flight; on the other hand, the short wings are used efficiently in these circumstances, like fins; so that the bird may be said literally to fly beneath the surface. "Their movements under water precisely resemble those of the Dyticidæ or common Water-beetles; the principal motion being more or less vertical, instead of horizontal as in the Grebes and Loons; they are therefore, together with the distinct group of Penguins, the most characteristic divers of the Class." The characters of the Family are, that the beak is varying in length, more or less compressed; the upper mandible curving to the tip, which is sometimes hooked: the wings are generally short, and in some little more than rudimentary; the tail short and graduated; the tarsi short and compressed; the toes entirely webbed, the hind toe either wanting or very small.

These birds frequently associate in immense numbers on rocky islets and precipitous cliffs that overhang the sea, on the shelves and narrow ledges of which they lay their eggs, one only deposited by each bird; the female keeping it between her feet for the purpose of incubation, as she sits in an erect position. The procuring of the eggs and young of these and similar birds, forms an important means of subsistence to many families.

The storm-lashed and iron-bound coasts of Northern Europe and America, and of the extreme southern portion of the latter continent, with the frozen islands of both the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans, are the dreary homes of the