52 INTRODUCTION. 



the other divisions ; almost all of them are avail- 

 able as a delicate and nutritious food, and the fa- 

 cility of their domestication and introduction from 

 one climate to another, the ease with which they 

 seem to be able to accommodate themselves to 

 change of temperature or situation, afford addi- 

 tional proofs of the wise adaptation of structure 

 to the wants of the species, or for the purposes 

 which they were intended to fill in the arrange- 

 ments of nature. 



Continents containing an immense extent of forest 

 and of dense cover, or stretching out into unbound- 

 ed plains, are necessary for their abundance ; and 

 in all the great lands of our globe, we shall find 

 analogous forms marked out for their respective 

 localities. In the islands, the supply becomes na- 

 turally limited according to their extent ; and it 

 should be recollected, that here the native inhabi- 

 tants have their maintenance supplied from the 

 seas, in proportion as the ruminating animals and 

 rasorial birds are wanting to the land. In Europe 

 and Western Asia we find the least proportion, 

 the families there being now confined to the Te- 

 traonidce or grouse, the bustards, and a limited 

 number of pigeons. It may be remarked, at the 

 same time, that these countries have been longer 

 in a continued state of progressive civilization 

 than any others, and that in them the greatest 

 advantages have been taken of the capabilities 

 which the foreign species afforded of being na- 

 turalised, every other continent having been laid 



