Page:The Common Birds of Bombay.djvu/200

 CHAPTER XXXI.

THE DUCKS, CORMORANTS AND GREBES.

have arrived at the last Order of birds, the Natatores, or Swimmers, whose home is on the face of the waters. Some of them cannot walk at all, and few are at ease on dry land, but in their own element

they are happy and graceful. Their bodies are long and boat-shaped, their plumage close-set and well oiled, so that any fluid rolls off them "like water off a duck's back," their legs are short and set far back, and their feet are converted into paddles by a web which stretches from toe to toe. With these propellers they make their way swiftly over the surface of