BIR 



INDEX. 



BLO 



grations ; in what order performed ; follow the weather rather than 

 the country, and go on as they perceive the atmosphere more suita- 

 ble to tlieir wants and dispositions ; in all countries, longer-lived 

 thaji quadrupeds or insects of the same climate; surprising age of 

 swans and geese ; plumage and voice of birds in different zoin-s . all 



in quadrupeds ; the greatest of one class surpass the greatest 

 of the other in magnitude ; causes of the great variety in the middle 

 order of birds ; the ostrich is the greatest of birds ; the humming- 

 bird the smallest ; wild birds generally of the same magnitude and 

 shape ; inferior to quadrupeds in docility ; the number already 

 known above eight hundred ; difference between land-birds and 

 water-fowls ; description of birds of the rapacious kind ; the pie 

 kind ; the poultry kind ; the sparrow kind ; the duck kind , the crane 

 kind. 4.")C> to 4(11 ; the cormorant the best fisher ; the nauseous bird, 

 or dodo ; powers of land-birds of the rapacious kind to obtain their 

 food ; sight of such as prey by day surprisingly quick ; such as 

 ravage by night have their sight fitted to see in darkness with pre- 

 cision ; inhabit the most lonely places and desert mountains ; ap- 

 pearing in cultivated plains, or the warbling groves, is for depreda- 

 tion ; every order of carnivorous birds seek for those of the size ap- 



ing tlieir own ; the carnivorous kinds only breed annually, 

 and are less fruitful than others ; breed but few at a time ; where 

 supplies of food are difficult, the old soon drive the brood from the 

 nest to shift for themselves, and often destroy them in a fury caused 

 by hunger ; almost all birds of prey unsociable ; the male and fe- 

 male, when necessary to each other, live together, but they most 

 usually prowl alone ; birds with crooked beaks and talons are soli- 

 tary ; all males of prey are less and weaker than the females ; the 

 females are of a greater size, more beautiful and lovely for shape ij 

 and colours, stronger, more fierce, and generous, than the males ; it jj 

 may be necessary to be thus superior, to provide for herself and her | 

 young ; these birds are lean and meagre ; their flesh is stringy and 

 ill-tasted, soon corrupting, and flavoured of that animal upon which |i 

 they subsist ; Belonius asserts, many people like the flesh of the jj 

 vulture and falcon, and dress them for eating ; and that the osprey, j 

 when young, is excellent food ; five kinds of land-birds of the rapacious I 

 nature ; whence their distinctive mark ; bird of heaven, name given by |! 

 the ancients to the eagle ; two children carried off by eagles, 471) to I 

 474; the most formidable birds of prey respect the butcher-bird, 

 486; the digestion of such as live upon mice, lizards, or the like 

 food, not very perfect, 4tfO ; Father Kircher set the voice of birds 

 to music, 490 ; domestic birds of the poultry kind, maintained in our 

 yards, are of foreign extraction, 492 ; the wilder species, cooped or 

 caged, pine away, grow gloomy, and some refuse all sustenance ; 

 the poultry kind'alone grow fat, 403 ; climate, food, and captivity, 

 three very powerful agents in the alteration of the habits, and the 

 very form of birds ; of all birds the cock the oldest companion of 

 mankind, and the first reclaimed from the forest, 494 ; also the Per- 

 sian bird of Aristophanes, ib. ; description of the tamis, or the bird 

 of Numidia. 503 ; the bustard the largest land-bird, native of Bri- 

 tain, 504 ; none secures its young better from external injury 

 than the toucan, 518; God's bird, the bird of paradise, 023 ; para- 

 keets the most beautiful in plumage, and the most talkative 

 birds in nature, 528 ; the pigeon, for its size, has the largest 

 crop, 530 ; small birds the greatest favourites of man ; mark 

 out a territory to themselves, which they permit none of their 

 own species to remain in ; at some seasons of the year, all small 

 birds migrate from one country to another, or from more in- 

 land provinces towards the shore: months of their migrations; 

 autumn the principal season for catching those wanderers ; the nets, 

 and the method of catching them ; flur-birds ; singing among birds 

 universally the prerogative of the male ; small birds fight till one 

 yields his life with the victory ; two male birds strive in song, till 

 the loudest silences the other; during the contention, the female 

 sits an attentive silent auditor, and often rewards the loudest 

 songster with her company during the season ; the male, while his 

 mMte is hatching, sits upon some neighbouring tree, to watch and 

 to sing ; the nest of small birds warmer than of larger ; small birds 

 having finished their nests, nothing exceeds the cunning they em- 

 ploy to conceal it ; worms and insects the first food of all birds of 

 the sparrow kind ; how birds of the sparrow kind bring forth and I! 

 hatch their young ; manner of life durinc the rigours of winter ; 

 the male of small birds not finding a mate of his own species, flies ' 

 to one of another, like him, It-it out. in pairing ; a mixed species be- 

 tween a gold-finch and a canary-bird, between a linnet and a lark ; 

 these breed frequently together, and produce not,, like the mules 

 among quadrupeds, a race incapable of breeding again, hut one as 

 frirtful as thi-ir parents : various birds of the sparrow kind; many 

 plants propagated from the depositions of birds ; many of those kinds, 

 which are <>f passage in England, permanent in other countries ; 

 and some with us constant residents, in other kingdoms have the 



nature of birds of passage : instances of it, 533 to 538 ; the heroa 

 commits tlic greatest devastation in fresh waters, r>b'U ; the flamingo 

 has the largest tongue, 5t>ti ; binis of various sorts and sizes, more 

 than the stars in a serene night, seen in the rock of' the Bass and in 

 the Frith of Forth, 5p<{ ; none make a more indifferent figure upon 

 land, or a more beautiful in the water, than the swan, 593; of all 

 birds known it is the longest in the shell, 505 ; the duck, reared 

 under a hen, despises the admonitions of its leader; an inconli-sti- 

 blo proof that birds have their manners rather from nature than 

 education, 507. 



Bird-catchrrs sport by counterfeiting the cry of the owl, 490 ; 

 nets for, and method of taking small birds, 5:14. 



Kison and lirus, names of descendants of one common 

 error of the naturalists upon this point ; the cow and bison are ani- 

 mals oi the same kind ; description of the bison ; it is supposed by 

 Klein and Buffon no more than another name for the bonasus : th-- 1 

 breed found in all the southern parts of the world ; that breed more 

 expert and docile than ours ; many bend their knees to take burdens 

 up, or set them down ; the respect for them in India degenerated 

 into adoration ; it is nimble of foot ; it is esteemed by the Hotten- 

 tots ; assists them in attending their flocks, and guarding them 

 against invaders ; is taught to combat the enemies of the nation, and 

 every army of the Hottentots is furnished witli a herd of them ; they 

 procure the Hottentots an easy victory before they strike a blow ; 

 lives in the same cottage with its master, and when it dies, a new 

 one is chosen to succeed it by a council of the old men of the vil- 

 lage, and is then joined with a veteran of its own kind, from v, I 0111 

 itlearns, becomes social and diligent, and is taken for life into friend 

 ship and protection ; the bisons are found to differ from each u1tr:'i 

 in several parts of the world; some have horns, and some are with- 

 out ; they are equally tractable and gentle when tamed, and are fur- 

 nished with a fine, lustrous, soft hair, more beautiful than that of 

 our own breed ; their hump of different sizes, weighing from forty 

 to fifty pounds, more or less ; cuts and tastes somewhat like a 

 dressed udder ; the bisons of Malabar, Abyssinia, Madagascar, Ara- 

 bia, Asia, Africa, and America ; in the course of a few generations, 

 the hump wears away ; its description ; the bison and the cow 

 breed among each other ; the grunting or Siberian cow, and thu 

 little African cow, or zebu, are different races of the bison, 235 

 to 237. 



Bitch, a pregnant bitch, so placed by Mr. Buffon that her puppies 

 were brought forth in warm water, 133; one forgotten in ,-i 

 try house lived forty days without any other nourishment thai: tho 

 wool of a quilt she had torn to pieces, 317. 



Bittern, or mire-drum, the solemnity of its evening-call cannot l,o 

 described by words ; hey are calls to courtship or of connubial lo- 

 licity ; it differs from the heron chiefly in colour ; its wind-pipe 

 fitted for the sound ; opinions concerning the cause of its boomings ; 

 never utters its call in domestic captivity ; its residence ; a retired 

 timorous animal ; its food, nest, and eggs ; in three days, leads its 

 little ones to their food; differences between the bittern and thn 

 heron ; its hollow boom considered by the vulgar as the pie^'ire i 

 some sad event ; instance of it ; its flesh greatly esteemed by the 

 luxurious ; it seldom rises but when almost trode upon ; at the kil- 

 ter end of autumn, in the evening, its wonted indolence forsakes it ; 

 is then seen rising in a spiral ascent, till quite lost from the view, 

 making a singular noise different from its lornicr boomings; names 

 given to this bird by the Greeks and Latins, 5<i2. 5KII. 



Biralre shells, 070; all Ilie kinds hermaphrodite, yet require no 

 assistance towards impregnation, 687 ; it is particularly hi these 

 shell-fish that pearls are found, ti91. 



Blackbird, of the sparrow kind, 537 ; sometimes seen all over 

 white ; its eggs and nest, 539. 



Black-cap, bird of the sparrow kind, 538 ; prized by some for its 

 singing, and is also called the mock nightingale, 543. 



Blacks, conjectural opinion that the blacks are a race of people 

 bred from one man accidentally black. 1^3 ; the climate a cause*ob- 

 vious and sufficient to produce blackness ; nothing satisfactory dis- 

 covered upon the cause of producing it in human complex ions ; 

 opinion of Sir Thomas Brown upon the subject. lt J 4 ; win-nee 

 originally tlieir flat noses, 1S5 ; black parents have procreated two 

 \vlnte Negroes, ib. 



Bladder, birds have no bladder for urine, 45'i. Sre l-'is!.ts. (ill, C12. 



Blcnnius. or blenny, description of this ti*h. til'.?. 



J! : iii</. such as live in countries generally covered with snow be- 

 come blind, 103 ; the mole not blind, 371. 



BlmdKorm, its description, 740. 



Blood, arterial blood immediately mixed with air in the lungs, 

 is of a fine florid scarlet colour ; that of the veins returning to the 

 heart, is of a blackish crimson hue ; whence this difference f colour 

 proceeds not well understood) 97; the blood circulates through the 



