304 FACULTIES OF BIRDS. 



gether useless were not two considerations super- 

 added an instinct to desire and select the proper 

 food, and a locality in which that food is to be ob- 

 tained. It is curious and edifying to observe with 

 what discrimination the young of these animals, 

 without experience and without instruction, in- 

 stinctively seize on the particular kinfl of food 

 adapted to their digestive organs, rejecting all 

 other kinds, however palatable and nutritive to 

 creatures of a different species. Nor is it less 

 worthy of remark, that there is scarcely a vege- 

 table or animal production which some species 

 of bird does not seem created to feed upon ; and 

 that, speaking generally, wherever that peculiar 

 production is to be found, there is also to be found 

 the particular kind of bird to which it furnishes 

 wholesome food. We have already remarked the 

 astonishing celerity with which, in tropical coun- 

 tries, vultures and other birds of prey congregate 

 from all quarters of the heavens around a dead 

 carcass to devour it, indicating at once the acute- 

 ness of their sight, and the remarkable provision 

 which has been thus made for the destruction of 

 what might otherwise injuriously infect the atmo- 

 sphere ; and we may now rank this fact among those 

 that establish, or, at least, illustrate, the wise ar- 

 rangements to which we have been adverting. 



We are reminded, by what has been just said, of 

 the peculiar intensity of some of the senses in cer- 

 tain species of birds, which opens another view of 

 the wise and beneficent provisions of Providence. 

 It is by the remarkable strength of their vision that 

 birds of prey are enabled to mark their quarry at a 

 height where, to the human eye, they themselves 

 are almost invisible, and from whence, with incred- 

 ible velocity, they pounce on their unsuspecting 

 victims, and it is doubtless the same extraordinary 

 faculty which, if it does not enable, at least power- 

 fully assists, the migratory tribes to shape their 



