74 CHARACTERS FROM 



countries ; but they do not so frequently cross the 

 seas, or range so far in latitude in their migrations. 



The vegetable feeders and the animal feeders, 

 among the mammalia and birds, agree with each 

 other in the feeding in the two races, and differ from 

 each other in the different feeders of the same race, 

 in other respects. The vegetable feeders are, in 

 almost all the genera, more or less gregarious, both 

 in the one class and in the other ; and when they 

 migrate, they generally migrate in flocks, often in 

 flocks containing immense numbers. The passenger 

 pigeons of America, and also some of those which 

 migrate seasonally in the longitudes of the east side 

 of New Holland, New Guinea, and the Molucca 

 islands, appear in numbers far exceeding those of any 

 migrant birds of other regions or other species ; and 

 some of those which belong to the latter migration 

 are as gay in their plumage as the parrots, or any 

 other of the finest birds of warm climates. The 

 males are also more polygamous among the vege- 

 table feeders ; and it is among them chiefly that 

 they fight battles of gallantry, though many of the 

 omnivorous ones agree with them in these, and also 

 in some other of their characters. 



That increased energy of character, which more 

 or less affects all birds in the pairing season, appears 

 to affect the different feeders in a different manner. 

 Their breeding plumages are much more gay, as 

 compared with the ordinary dress throughout the 

 year, and the naked skin upon the head blooms 

 into more brilliant hues. The eagles and hawks, 

 which are the most carnivorous of the whole race, 

 show the least change, either in colours or in man- 

 ner, at that season ; but the vultures, in which there 

 is a slight approximation to the gallinaceous charac- 



