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I'm not fond of using the boat at this time of the year, because the young birds are still in the nests among the reeds and water-plants; but we'll go. There are coots and grebes. 'Oh, look, there's a swan! 'Yes; there are two pair of them here.
The first who settled there were the wild ducks; and they still live there by thousands. But they no longer own the entire lake, for they have been obliged to share it with swans, grebes, coots, loons, fen-ducks, and a lot of others. Takern is certainly the largest and choicest bird lake in the whole country; and the birds may count themselves lucky as long as they own such a retreat.
The latter, resulting from an attack on Grebo Big Town, proved a regular 'Bull's Run, wherein the citizens lost all their guns and ammunition, and where the Grebes slaughtered my true and trusty steward, Selim Agha. I must allow myself a few lines in memory of a typical man.
Coot, sea duck, loons, black duck, grebes, dotted the surface of the pond and in all the sandy shallows spawning alewives splashed and played thousands of them. I had thought spawning a serious business with fish, not to be entered upon lightly or without due consideration. Yet these made a veritable romp of it.
On the other hand, grebes and coots are eminently aquatic, although their toes are only bordered by membrane. What seems plainer than that the long toes of grallatores are formed for walking over swamps and floating plants, yet the water-hen is nearly as aquatic as the coot; and the landrail nearly as terrestrial as the quail or partridge.
The collection of British birds includes the Birds of Prey, as the hawks; the eagles; and the owls: the Perching Birds, as the swallows; kingfishers; thrushes; butcher birds; rollers; and wagtails: the Scraping Birds, as pheasants; pigeons; quails; partridges; and guinea-fowls: the Wading Birds, including the woodcock; snipes; herons; sandpipers; storks; &c.: and the Web-footed Birds, including swans; ducks, and sea ducks; grebes; divers; auks; petrels; gulls; gannets; cormorants; &c.
One of these lines the pelicans, cormorants, etc. seems to be a continuation of the Ichthyornis type of the Cretaceous, with the Odontopteryx as an Eocene offshoot; the divers, penguins, grebes, and petrels represent another ancient stock, which may be related to the Hesperornis group of the Cretaceous. Dr.
To go through the list: otters are practically excluded; the pike is banished from trout streams but is plentiful in others; so too with perch; herons, much reduced in numbers; owls, reduced; kingfishers, growing scarce; coots, much less numerous because not permitted to nest; grebes, reduced; wild-duck, seldom seen in summer, because not permitted to nest; teal, same; swan, not permitted on fisheries unless ancient rights protect it; divers, never numerous, now scarcer; moorhens, still fairly plentiful because their ranks are constantly supplied from moats and ponds where they breed under semi-domestic conditions.
The ice was safe for a dog; the divers or grebes were still on its surface. So they sent Skookum. He soon returned with two beautiful grebes, whose shining, white breast feathers are as much prized as some furs. Quonab grunted as he held them up. "Ugh, it is often so in this Mad Moon. My father said it is because of Kaluskap's dancing." "I don't remember that one." "Yes, long ago.
And they had to abstain from cutting up the grebes which are caught by the Carriers in great numbers every spring, because otherwise the blood with which these fowls abound would occasion haemorrhage or an unnaturally prolonged flux in the transgressor.
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