414 



BIRD. 



of digestion and very much disposed to become ran- 

 cid. A barn-door fowl, which roams freely as it lists, 

 enjoying plenty and variety of food, and clapping its 

 wings and flying a little it' so inclined, is, in point of 

 flavour and wholesorneness, worth all the penned 

 birds that ever were " prepared for the market." This 

 is, as nearly as can perhaps be obtained in Britain, 

 the natural state of the bird ; and though there is 

 no doubt something of the influence of name in the 

 matter, the fact of their living and feeding in a state 

 of nature is one grand cause of the preference given 

 to the wild gallinidiB. But the flesh of these also is 

 tougher and more dry in proportion as they are more 

 in the habit of using the wing ; and therefore if they 

 cannot be dressed before they stiffen at all, they 

 require to be kept till incipient putrefaction makes 

 them tender ; and when they are very high, the 

 organs of taste and smell sometimes have disputes 

 about their real worth. 



Thus, the qualities which the flesh of the gallinidae 

 derives from their small tendency to flight, renders 

 them more immediately valuable to man than any 

 other birds ; and the very same circumstances, taken 

 in conjunction with their other habits, render them 

 among the most easily obtained. 'Jhey are also 

 among the most prolific, and instead of vanishing 

 before the progress of culture, as is the case with 

 many other birds, they increase in proportion as man 

 cultivates the ground. The partridge conies where 

 man ploughs, and in proportion as he plants, phea- 

 sants increase in numbers. 



The chief use of the wings of the gallinidjB, besides 

 enabling those which perch during the night to reach 

 their perches, appears to be safety against quadruped 

 foes. Their fluttering gets them, perhaps, sooner 

 above the reach of these than if they had a more 

 steady and forward style of flight. From birds of 

 prey they may be said, one and all, to be incapa- 

 ble of escaping on the wing ; their safety from these 

 consists in crouching among the clods or lurking 

 among the herbage ; and their general colours are 

 such that they are not easily distinguishable from 

 these. Their wings are short, broad, and concave, 

 and they are also looser in the plumage of their under 

 sides than the wings of almost any other birds. All 

 these qualities make them take a great hold on the 

 air, which assists them in " working upwards," though 

 it renders even that direction of flight more laborious. 

 They can thus reach the height of escape from a 

 ground preyer, or that of perching, upon a more per- 

 pendicular line, or with less forward motion than 

 birds of more powerful wing. The same form of 

 wings enables them to drop down more readily 

 than almost any other birds, except those which, like 

 the sky-larks, drop from a great height, and acquire 

 an impetus from the descent. This power of quick 

 descent is as advantageous to them as that of speedily 

 rising, for they drop so quickly into their cover that 

 one can hardly point to the precise spot, and the 

 difficulty of so doing is increased by the wheeling 

 motions which they have when in the air, and also 

 by their running in a different direction from that in 

 which they were flying, before they squat, or other- 

 wise pause, for the purpose of hiding themselves. 



Thus their apparently clumsy and ungainly wings 

 are as well adapted to their peculiar habits and haunts 

 as the finest and firmest wings that cleave the air. It 

 is also worthy of notice that, as their power is not 

 concentrated in the wings, but diffused over the body, 



all the parts of which have more or less of motion 

 in their several actions of walking, running, crouchinir, 

 standing up for observation, and others, the whole 

 body comes more into action, and labours more 

 during their flight, than in the more elegant fliers. 



This is an instance of a very curious habit of the 

 bodies of animals, which is so general that man him- 

 self is not exempted from it. It is this : if any one 

 system of the body, be that system what it may, 

 whether external or internal, is to work in its most 

 graceful and efficient and least laborious manner, it 

 must work alone, and the rest of the body must be 

 trimmed to its accommodation, and not in a state of 

 excitement or action. This is a proof that the 

 principle of animal life in the individual is one, in 

 the same manner as the intellectual principle in man 

 is one. If the breathing, or the circulation, or the 

 digestion, labours violently, the external organs 

 become unfit for motion ; and if the whole body is 

 excited, no one organ of it can perform its function 

 so well as if the rest of the body were tranquil. In 

 man, this is called self-possession, coolness, or firm- 

 ness, and every one knows its value ; in other animals 

 it arises from a different cause, but its effect is nearly 

 similar. 



We find the difference between the wholly excited 

 and acting body, and the acting of one part only, with 

 the others trimmed or borne in accordance with its 

 action, well exemplified in the spring of the lion or 

 the tiger, and the stroke of the falcon. In the beast, 

 the impetus is given with the whole body; in the 

 bird it is given with the wings only. Thus it is 

 momentary and exhausting in the former, but in the 

 latter it may be continuous, with comparatively little 

 abatement of energy. 



The flight of the gallinidae may be regarded as 

 only a sort of semiflight. It is performed with the 

 whole body, and partakes of the exhausting character 

 of every motion so performed ; and the faster that 

 these birds attempt to fly, they can fly for the shorter 

 time : they never fly fast but when they are excited, 

 and they very frequently scream as well as flutter, 

 showing thereby that they are in a state of unnatural 

 excitement that such flight is not their natural habit. 



And when we examine their structure, we find that 

 the whole body must act when they fly. The deep 

 forks or clefts in the sides of the sternum, render that 

 bone flexible ; the form of the furcal bone, whicjj is 

 that of the letter Y more than that of an arch,^nd 

 with the branches not placed with that side to the 

 strain with which they would be stiffest ; and the 

 looseness of the blade-bone; all conspire to render the 

 socket of the humerus unsteady and capable of play 

 in all directions. The whole side of the animal thus 

 works in lessening the effect of the wing-stroke, and 

 at the same time fatigues the bird more than would 

 be- done by a firm wing. The muscles are also, as 

 has been noticed, of less firm and enduring texture, 

 in proportion to their bulk. Thus the gallinaceous 

 bird is, by its structure, kept to its element as an 

 inhabitant of the earth, and rendered incapable of 

 soaring with the air-birds, to share either the gran- 

 deur of their flight, or the dangers to which they are 

 exposed on the wing. 



But while the loose and fluttering wings of these 

 birds keep them to their own element and place in 

 the world, they are not less adapted to their habits 

 and necessities there, than the swiftest and most 

 enduring wings are to their different element. Vv'e 



