INDEX. 



tenance ; the poultry kind alone grow fat, 126. Climate, 

 food, and captivity, three very powerful agents in the altera- 

 tion in the habits, and the very form of birds ; of all birds, 

 the cock the oldest companion of mankind, and the first re- 

 claimed from the forest, 128. Also the Persian bird of 

 Aristophanes, 129. Description of the tamis, or the bird of 

 Nurnidia, 155. The bustard the largest land-bird, native of 

 Britain, 156. None secures its young better from external 

 injury than the toucan, 195. God's bird, the bird of para- 

 dise, 205. Parakeets the most beautiful in plumage, and 

 the most talkative birds in nature, 230. The pigeon, for its 

 size, has the largest crop, 236. Small birds mark out a 

 territory to themselves, which they permit none of their own 

 species to remain in ; at some seasons of the year, all small 

 birds migrate from one country to another, or from more 

 inland provinces towards the shore; months of their migra- 

 tions ; autumn the principal season for catching these wan- 

 derers ; the nets and the method of catching them ; flur- 

 birds ; singing among birds universally the prerogative of 

 the male ; small birds fight till one yields his life with the 

 victory ; two male birds strive in song, till the loudest 

 silences the other ; during the contention, the female sits 

 an attentive silent auditor, and often rewards the loudest 

 songster with her company during the season ; the male, 

 while his mate is hatching, sits upon some neighbouring tree 

 to watch and to sing ; the nests of small birds warmer than 

 of the larger ; small birds having finished their nests, nothing 

 exceeds the cunning they employ to conceal it ; worms and 

 insects the first food of all birds of the sparrow kind; 

 how birds of the sparrow kind bring forth and hatch their 

 young ; manner of life during the rigours of winter ; the 

 male of small birds not finding a mate of his own species, 

 flies to one of another, like him left out in pairing; a 

 mixed species between a goldfinch and a canary bird, be- 

 tween a linnet and a lark, these breed frequently together, 

 and produce, not like the mules among quadrupeds, a race 

 incapable of breeding again, but one as fruitful as their 

 parents ; various birds of the sparrow kind ; many plants 

 propagated from the depositions of birds ; many of those 

 kinds which are of passage in England, permanent in other 

 countries ; and some, with us constant residents, in other 

 kingdoms have the nature of birds of passage ; instances of 

 it, 244, &c. The heron commits the greatest devastation 

 in fresh waters, 317- The flamingo has the largest tongue, 

 334-. Birds of various sorts and sijues, more than the stars 

 in a serene night, seen on the rock of the Bass, in the Firth 

 of Forth, 376. None make a more indifferent figure upon 

 land, or a more beautiful in the water, than the swan, 408. 

 Of all birds known, it is the longest in the shell, 413. An 



