C II A P T E R I . 



THK STRUCTURE OF BIRDS. 



The birds, attired in all their beauty, or in their humblest guise, unobtrusive in their 

 humility, or assumino- the proud bearing of conscious power, are plenteously scattered 

 over the surface (jf the earth. The lark delights us with its notes as we cross the verdant 

 or the ploughed field ; the partridge flies from the intruder verging on its nest amidst the 

 standing corn ; the coo of the pigeon salutes us in the woods, and many a delightful song- 

 is heard in the groves. We meet with the feathered tribes auKjng the busy haunts of 

 men ; and even on the dismal sand, where the fragments of vessels are bleaching, and over 

 which flow the waters that engulfed their crews, the sight of a penguin or the scream of 

 a curlew may recall the mind to animated nature, and sui^ply it ^^'itll subjects of pleasure 

 and admiration. 



Favourites of man, as many of the feathered tribes have been, from the symmetry of 



B 



