434 THE LIFE OF A BIRD. 



enables them to breathe much more air, in pro- 

 portion, than we can, in a given time, so that a 

 degree of exertion which would put a man out of 

 breath, has no such effect on the bird. 



We have now watched birds up to their last or 

 perfect condition. They have been presented to 

 our notice in the act of preparing the nest, in the 

 deposition and structure of the egg, in the duties 

 of incubation, in the joys of parentage, in the 

 helpless condition of the chick, and in its gradual 

 progress to maturity. These are all facts which, 

 in various ways, present themselves to our notice, 

 day by day, in the fields and woods, or in the 

 farm-yard. Yet how little do most persons attend 

 to the lives and habits of the interesting beings of 

 whom we have spoken ! If we will only leave off 

 the habit of thinking of the things of nature as 

 too common-place to deserve our notice, what a 

 fund of delightful instruction will soon be dis- 

 covered lying around us, even in the most disad- 

 vantageous circumstances ! It may scarcely appear 

 credible, yet it is certainly true, that an ornitholo- 

 gist, even in the metropolis, has many opportuni- 

 ties of studying birds, as well as other matters. 

 A gentleman, resident in the great city, has found 



