PROCEEDINGS OF PROVINCIAL SOCIETIES. 313 



birds will accomplish hundreds of miles in safety. I have witnessed 

 the flight of many Carrier Pigeons, and have only seen one unable 

 to find his way. This bird, after taking a turn or two in the air, 

 settled on a building, apparently quite bewildered. He was doubt- 

 less deficient in instinct or practice." 



After entering into various particulars with regard to migration, 

 and mentioning Dr. Hunter's refutation of the absurd notion that 

 Swallows had the power of existing under water, the lecturer re- 

 marks : — " The obvious motives of migration are to be found in 

 food, climate, and convenience for incubation and rearing of young. 

 * * * The instincts and affections of birds," he observes, *' are 

 very wonderful and beautiful. It would be difficult, in the case of 

 birds, as we can in the case of dogs and some other animals, to at- 

 tribute a superiority of instinct to one species over another. Doubt- 

 less the instincts of all correspond with their necessities ; but per- 

 haps I may not be wrong in ascribing the greater acuteness of per- 

 ception to those birds which most easily acquire the power of arti- 

 culating words. Philosophers have defined instinct to be * that 

 secret influence by which every species is impelled to pursue at all 

 times the same way or track without any teaching or example.' " 

 This definition he proves to be deficient, by giving many instances 

 in which birds deviate from their usual course, particularly when 

 the affections are engaged. Amongst others, he gives the following 

 from White of Selborne : — " The Flycatcher builds every year in 

 the vine that grows on the walls of my house. A pair of these lit- 

 tle birds, one year, inadvertently placed their nest on a naked bough, 

 perhaps in a shady time, not being aware of the inconvenience that 

 followed ; but a hot sunny season coming on before the brood was 

 half-fledged, the reflection of the wall became insupportable, and 

 must have inevitably destroyed the tender young had not affection 

 suggested an expedient and prompted the parent birds to hover over 

 the nest all the hotter hours, while with wings expanded and 

 mouths gaping for breath they screened the heat from their suffer- 

 ing offspring.'* 



The age of birds does not appear to bear the same proportion to 

 the time of acquiring their full growth as it does in quadrupeds. 

 In proportion to the size of their bodies, birds live much longer 

 than either man or quadrupeds. Geese and Swans sometimes attain 

 the age of seventy, and an instance of a Goose ninety years old has 

 been known : Ravens and Eagles are supposed sometimes to reach 

 an hundred. Even Linnets and other small birds have been kept 

 in cages from fifteen to twenty years. 



After giving some interesting particulars with regard to the food 

 of birds, the lecturer proceeded to dwell upon their songs, which he 

 did with much enthusiasm. We must, however, conclude our no- 

 tice with the following reflections : " How impressive is the reflec- 

 tion which the history of birds, and, indeed, of other animals, is cal- 

 culated to impart to the mind ! All human affairs are transitory 

 and unstable, and the fashion of them soon passes away. The ha- 



VOL. VI. NO. XX. RR 



