20 THE FEATHEUF.D TltlKES. 



horse, trained for the race, nnd chosen from among the lightest and most ^-igorous, can 

 perform a league in six or seven minutes ; but his sjoced soon relaxes, and he would be 

 incapable of supporting a longer career, -with the spirit and celerity with which he set 

 out. An Englishman went seventy-two leagues in eleven hours and thirty-two minutes, 

 haA-ing changed horses one-and-twenty times ; thus the best horse can make no more than 

 four leagues an hour, nor more than thirty leagues a day. 



But the swiftness of birds is considerably greater than that of such animals. In less 

 than three minutes we lose sight of a largo bird ; of a kite for example, which proceeds 

 horizontally, or an eagle, which flies vertically, and the diameter of whose extent on the 

 •wing is more than four feet. From this we may infer, that the bird traverses more than 

 a space of 4,500 feet in a minute, and that he can fly twenty leagues in an hour. He 

 may then easily proceed at the rate of 200 leagues a day, continuing on the wing for 

 only ten hours. This supposes many intervals in the day, and the entire night for 

 repose. 



Swallows, and other birds of passage, may thus proceed from our climate to the Line 

 in less than seven or eight days. M. Adanson has seen and caught swallows on the coast 

 of Senegal, which arrived there eight or nine days after their departure from Europe. 

 Pietro della Valle saj's, that in Persia, the carrier-pigeon makes greater way in one daj^ 

 than a man on foot can in six. The story of the falcon of Henry II. is well kuo^vn, 

 which, pursuing with eagerness a smaller bustard at Fontainbleau, was taken the follow- 

 ing day at Malta, and recognised bj' the ring which she bore. A falcon from the Canary 

 Islands, sent to the Duke of Lerma, returned from Andalusia to the Isle of Tcnerilie in 

 sixteen hours, which is a passage of 250 leagues. It was stated by Sir Hans Sloane that, 

 at Barbadoes, the sea-gulls proceed in flocks to a distance of more than 200 miles, 

 and return again the same day. A coiu'se like this, of more than 130 leagues, suffi- 

 ciently indicates the possibility of a voyage of 200 ; and it has been concluded, 

 from the combination of such fiicts, that a bird of elevated flight can traverse every 

 day four or five times as nmch space as the most agile quadruped. 



The constant habit of living in the air, imparts to birds a knowledge of all the meteoric 

 changes which take place in the atmosphere, of winds, of seasons, and of bad weather. 

 "The kite," says the prophet Jeremiah, " liiiows his time in the sky." The turtlo-dove, 

 the stork, and the swallow, are equally acquainted with the period of their returns. All 

 animated brings, indeed, not distracted by other cares, can presage the changes of 

 temperature. This is even the case with man, and especially with those M'hose nerves, 

 from nature or indisposition, have received any peculiar sensibility. 



It is well known to sailoi's that birds may be observed with advantage. For when the 

 divers and tlie sea-gulls retire to tlie rocks on rapid wing, and make the shores re-echo 

 with their clamours, as if to warn their companions; when water-fowl parade the strand 

 with apparent anxiousness ; when the cranes, quitting their marshes, soar above the 

 clouds, and the swallows fly in circles over the surface of the water ; the prudent navi- 

 gator should lower his sails, and anticipate the impending storm. In like manner, black 

 legions of ravens beat the air with their wings, and the rooks clamoiir in tlie fields at the 

 ajjproacli of rain. <h\ such occasions, too, the heifer in the pasture snufl's in the air with 

 elevated In; 1(1 ; llir liogs croak in the marshes; the ants bring back their chrysalises to 

 the nest ; and tislics come to the surfoce of the water to respire. All animals appear to 

 presage the tempest ; and it is thus that shepherds and labourers, constantly exposed to 

 the atmosphere, divine all its variations by a sort of instinctive observation. 



But on the return of fine weather, we see a total change of all these 8\nnptoms in 

 animated nature. The birds whicli inhabit strands and .shores no longer como 

 to drj' their jilumes in • the sun; the. screech-owl no longer utters his funereal 

 cries in the evening; the hawk circles in the ]iure aznn^ sky; the smaller lu'rds 



