RELATION OP BIRDS TO MAN. 5 



whicli in birds are doubtless more varied than in any 

 of the other higher animals. Some birds, like Penguins, 

 are so aquatic that they are practically helpless on land. 

 Their wings are too small to support them in the air, but 

 they fly under water with great rapidity, and might be 

 termed feathered porpoises. Othei's, like the Ostrich, 

 are terrestrial, and can neither fly nor swim. Others 

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

 feet are of use only in perching, 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 possible, as 

 before remarked, the wide distribution of birds, which, 

 together with their size and abundance, renders them of 

 incalculable importance to man. Their economic value, 

 however, may be more properly spoken of under 



The Relation of Birds to 31 an. — The relation of birds 

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

 aesthetic. ]^o animals form more profitable subjects for 

 the scientist than birds. The embryologist, 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 attract us; 

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

 future dissection. 



The economic value of birds to man lies in the service 

 they render in preventing the undue increase of insects, 



