226 FACULTLES OF BIRDS. 
as an arrow from heaven he descends, the roar of 
his wings reaching the ear as he disappears in he 
deep.”* M. Vaillant again says of his vociferous 
eagle (Haliaetus vocifer, Saviceny), that, “like the 
ospray and the white-tailed eagle (Haliaetus alii- 
cilla, Savieny), it dives rapidly from a great height 
in the air upon a fish which it descries.”t We have 
ourselves more than once seen the osprey dash 
down from a height of two or three hundred feet 
upon a fish of no considerable size, and which a 
man could with difficulty have perceived at the same 
distance.} 
Ross, in his voyage to Baffin’s Bay, proved that 
a man under favourable circumstances could see 
over the surface of the ocean to the extent of one 
hundred and fifty English miles. It is not proba- 
ble that any animal exceeds this power of vision, 
though birds perhaps excel men and most quadru- 
peds in sharpness of sight. M. Schmidt threw, at 
a considerable distance from a thrush (Turdus mu- 
sicus),a few small beetles, of a pale gray colour, 
which the unassisted human eye could not discover, 
yet the thrush observed them immediately and de- 
voured them. The bottletit (Parus caudatus) flits 
with great quickness among the branches of trees, 
and finds on the very smooth bark its particular 
food, where nothing is perceptible to the naked eye, 
though insects can be detected there by the micro- 
scope. A very tame redbreast (Rhondella rubecula) 
discovered crumbs from the height of the branch 
where it usually sat, at the distance of eighteen 
feet from the ground, the instant they were thrown 
down, and this by bending its head to one side, and 
using, of course, only one eye. At the same dis- 
tance a quail (Coturnixr major, Brisson) discovered, 
with one eye, some poppy-seeds, which are very 
small and inconspicuous. 
* American Omnith,, v. + Oiseaux d’Afrique, 1., 18. 
t J. Rennie. 
