LETTER XLI. 



that we should indulge our curiosity, or acquire, at the 

 best, an useless knowledge, by tortures inflicted on 

 any of his creatures; especially as without such 

 means, the multifarious variety displayed both in the 

 physical and moral world, is sufficient to exercise the 

 greatest genius, and the most indefatigable research. 



It is remarkable, that birds of the granivorous kind 

 frequently swallow a number of small stones, which 

 are often found in their stomachs, and which assist di- 

 gestion, by grinding down the grain, and separating 

 its parts. 



Between carnivorous birds and carnivorous quadru- 

 peds, there seems to be a visible analogy both in their 

 structure and disposition. Both are provided with 

 weapons of rapine and destruction : their manners are 

 fierce and unsocial, and they seldom herd together 

 like those of the granivorous class. Rapacious birds 

 retire to the tops of sequestered rocks, or the depths 

 of extensive deserts, where, like the predaceous qua- 

 drupeds, they conceal themselves in gloomy solitude. 

 The granivorous tribes, on the contrary, like those 

 quadrupeds which feed on herbage, are gentle, in- 

 offensive, and social ; and may, for the most part, be 

 easily domesticated. Man has in consequence availed 

 himself of this tractable disposition, and judiciously 

 selected from the numbers which on every side sur- 

 round him, such as were likely to be the most useful ; 

 among which the hen, the goose, the turkey, the. 

 duck, and the pigeon, are the principal, and furnish 

 us with a store of nutritious and palatable food. 



To enter into a minute history of the feathered part 

 of the creation, is, my dear Sir, incompatible with our 

 present purpose : one particular circumstance, how- 

 ever, has been so long the subject of remark and in- 

 vestigation, that it cannot be suffered to pass unno- 

 ticed. 



The annual migrations of those, which from that 

 circumstance are denominated birds of passage, have 

 exercised the speculation of all ornithologists, and 

 given rise to a variety of conjectures among writers 

 on that subject. Most birds are, in some measure. 



