INTRODUCTION. 3 



of a man attached ; but how shall he lift a substance 

 heavier than the air? And how guide its progress through 

 the air? Show him the weighty body of an Eagle or a 

 Swan*, tell him their living history, and he may reason- 

 ably doubt your fact, and deny that these things could be. 



There is one difficulty in the use of wings that any 

 one may ascertain for himself. Let him take the smallest 

 sized boy's kite by the narrow end, and wave it up and 

 down at arm's length; he will instantly perceive how 

 great is the resistance of the air, and how obvious the 

 inability of his muscular strength to produce anything 

 like the rapid motion of a wing. And yet, in order to 

 possess the powers of a bird, he must be able to con- 

 struct and move artificial wings, in superficial extent, in 

 some cases measuring several of such kites; with the 

 additional difficulties, which mathematical knowledge 

 would prove to be proportionally increased at every 

 step in his progress. How all these seeming impossi- 

 bilities are accomplished is perhaps the most interesting 

 part of the following pages. 



But the study of Ornithology has other charms, in a 

 great measure confined to itself, and recommending it 

 to the attention of a large class of readers ; namely, 

 that of its being within the reach of all who take an 

 interest in the proceedings of the natural world. Quad- 

 rupeds, generally speaking, are few in number, and so 

 difficult of access, that in fact, beyond the limited fami- 

 lies of our domestic menageries, few can have an oppor- 

 tunity of investigating their habits. Out of eighty 

 genera of four-footed animals, about fifteen only are to 

 be met with in the British islands ; of these, many live 

 so remote from man that accident alone can gratify his 

 curiosity, and of that greater portion scattered over the 

 earth few, comparatively speaking, ever fall under the 

 observation of the most inquiring traveller. One-half 

 of the characteristic features of the lion and tiger tribe 

 we collect from the analogous habits of one of a similar 



* The Wild Swan weighs 25 Ib. 



B2 



