INTRODUCTION. 29 



to support through life ; the result of these examples is, that our 

 domestic fowls have lived twenty years ; Pigeons have exceeded 

 that period ; Parrots have attained more than thirty years. Geese 

 live probably more than half a century ; a Pelican has lived to eighty 

 years ; and Swans, Ravens, and Eagles have exceeded a century : 

 even Linnets, in the unnatural restraints of the cage, have survived 

 for fourteen or fifteen years, and Canaries twenty-five. To account 

 for this remarkable tenacity of life, nothing very satisfactory has 

 been offered ; though Bufibn is of opinion, that the soft and porous 

 nature of their bones contributes to this end, as the general ossifica- 

 tion and rigidity of the system perpetually tends to abridge the 

 boundaries of life. 



In a general way it may be considered as essential for the bird to 

 fly, as it is for the fish to swim, or the quadruped to walk ; yet in 

 all these tribes there are exceptions to the general liabits. Thus 

 among quadrupeds, the Bats fly ; the Seals, and other animals of 

 that description, swim; and the Beaver and Otter, with an inter- 

 mediate locomotive power, swim better than they can walk. So 

 also among birds, the Ostrich, Cassowary, Dodo, and some others, 

 incapable of flying, are obliged to walk ; others, as the Penguins, 

 Dippers, and Razor-bills, fly and swim, but never walk. Some, in 

 fine, like the Birds of Paradise, Swallows, and Humming-birds, can 

 neither walk nor swim, but pass their time chiefly on the wing. 

 A far greater number of birds live on the water than of quadrupeds, 

 for of the latter there are not more than five or six kinds furnished 

 with webbed or oar-like feet; whereas of birds with this structure 

 there are above three hundred. The lightness of their feathers and 

 bones, as well as the boat-like form of their bodies, contributes 

 greatly to facilitate their buoj^ancy and progress in the water, and 

 their feet serve as oars to propel them. 



Thus in whatever way we view the feathered tribes which surround 

 us, we shall find much both to amuse and instruct. We hearken to 

 their songs with renewed delight, as the harbingers and associates 

 of the season they accompany. Their return, after a long absence, 

 is hailed with gratitude to the Author of all existence ; and the 

 cheerless solitude of inanimate nature is, by their presence, attuned 

 to life and harmony. Nor do they alone administer to the amuse- 

 ment and luxury of life ; faithful aids as well as messengers of the 

 seasons, they associate round our tenements, and defend the various 

 productions of the earth, on which we so much rely for subsistence, 

 from the destructive depredations of myriads of insects, which, but 

 3* 



