KKLATIOX OF lUKDS To MAX. 5 



wliicli in l»irds are doubtless iiKjre varied than in anv 

 of the other hifi^her animals. Some birds, like Pem^uins, 

 are so a(|uatic' that they are practically hel})less on land. 

 Their win<j^s are too small to support them in the air, but 

 they Hy under water with great rapidity, and mii^dit be 

 termed feathered porpoises. Others, like the Ostrich, 

 are terrestrial, and can neither Hy nor swim. Others 

 still, like the Frigate Birds, are aerial. Their small 

 feet are of use only in perchmg, and their home is in 

 the air. 



If now we should compare specimens of Penguins, 

 Ostriches, and Frigate-birds with each other, and with 

 such widely different forms as Hummingbirds, Wood- 

 peckers, Parrots, and others, we would realize still more 

 clearly the remarkable amount of variation shown by 

 birds. This great difference in form is accompanied by a 

 corresponding variation in habit, making possilde, as 

 before remarked, the wide distribution of birds, which, 

 together ^vitli their size and abundance, renders them of 

 incalculalde importance to man. Their economic value, 

 however, may be more properly spoken of under 



The Relation of Birds to 21<t)\. — The relation of birds 

 to man is threefold — the scientific, the economic, and the 

 aesthetic. No animals form more ])rofitable subjects for 

 the scientist than birds. The embrvologist, the morphol- 

 ogist, and the systematist, the philosophic naturalist and 

 the psychologist, all may find in them exhaustless mate- 

 rial for study. It is not my purpose, however, to speak 

 here of the science of ornithology. Let us learn some- 

 thing of the bird in its haunts before taking it to the 

 laboratory. The living bird can not fail to atti-act us ; 

 the dead bird — voiceless, motionless — we will leave for 

 future dissection. 



The economic value oi birds to man lies in the service 

 they render in preventing the undue increase of insects. 



