BIRDS IN GENERAL. 



459 



with a warmer coat of feathers ; or they have 

 large quantities of fat lying underneath the 

 skin, which serves to defend them from the 

 rigours of the climate. 



In all countries, however, birds are a more 

 long-lived class of animals than the quadru- 

 peds or insects of the same climate. The 

 life of man himself is but short, when com- 

 pared to what some of them enjoy. It is 

 said that swans have been known to live 

 three hundred years; geese are often seen 

 to live fourscore ; while linnets and other 

 little birds, though imprisoned in cages, are 

 often found to reach fourteen or fifteen. How 

 birds, whose age of perfection is much more 

 early than that of quadrupeds, should yet 

 live comparatively so much longer, is not 

 easily to be accounted for: perhaps, as 

 their bones are lighter, and more porous, 

 than those of quadrupeds, there are fewer 

 obstructions in the animal machine; and 

 nature, thus finding more room for the opera- 

 tions of life, is carried on to a greater ex- 

 tent. 



All birds in general are less than quadru- 

 peds ; that is, the greatest of one class far 

 surpass the greatest of the other in magnitude. 

 The ostrich, which is the greatest of birds, 

 bears no proportion to the elephant ; and the 

 smallest humming-bird, which is the least of 

 the class, is still far more minute than the 

 mouse. In these the extremities of nature 

 are plainly discernible; and in forming them 

 she appears to have been doubtful in her 

 operations: the ostrich, seemingly covered 

 with hair, and incapable of flight, making 

 near approaches to the quadruped class ; 

 while the humming-bird, of the size of an 

 humble-bee, and with a fluttering motion, 

 seems nearly allied to the insect. 



These extremities of this class are rather 



objects of human curiosity than utility: it is 

 the middle order of birds which man has 

 taken care to propagate and maintain. Of 

 those which he has taken under his protec- 

 tion, and which administer to his pleasures 

 or necessities, the greatest number seem crea- 

 tures of his formation. The variety of cli- 

 mate to which he consigns them, the food 

 with which he supplies them, and the pur- 

 poses for which he employs them, produce 

 amazing varieties, both in their colours, shape, 

 magnitude, and the taste of their flesh. Wild 

 birds are, for the most part, of the same mag- 

 nitude and shape; they still keep the prints 

 of primaeval nature strong upon them, except 

 in a few; they generally maintain their very 

 colour : but it is otherwise with domestic ani- 

 mals; they change at the will of man of the 

 tame pigeon, for instance, it is said they can 

 be bred to a feather. 



As we are thus capable of influencing their 

 form and colour, so also is it frequent to see 

 equal instances of our influencing their ha- 

 bitudes, appetites, and passions. The cock, 

 for instance, is artificially formed into that 

 courage and activity which he is seen to pos- 

 sess; and many birds testify a strong attach- 

 ment to the hand that feeds them. How far 

 they are capable of instruction, is manifest 

 to those who have the care of hawks. But 

 a still more surprising instance of this was 

 seen some time ago in London : a canary 

 bird was taught to pick up the letters of the 

 alphabet, at the word of command, so as to 

 spell any person's name in company ; and 

 this the little animal did by motions from its 

 master, which were imperceptible to every 

 other spectator. Upon the whole, however, 

 they are inferior to quadrupeds in docility; 

 and seem more mechanically impelled by all 

 the power of instinct. 



CHAPTER LXXVI. 



OF THE DIVISION OF BIRDS. 



THOUGH birds are fitted for sporting in 

 air, yet as they find their food upon the sur- 

 face of the earth, there seems a variety equal 

 to the different aliments with which it tends 



NO. 39 & 40. 



to supply them. The flat and burning desert, 

 the rocky clifF. the extensive fen, the stormy 

 ocean, as well as the pleasing landscape, 

 have all their peculiar inhabitants. The 

 3Y 



