30 



HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



sparrow-hawk pursues the thrush and linnet. 

 Nature has provided that each species should 

 make war only on such as are furnished with 

 adequate means of escape. The smallest birds 

 avoid their pursuers by the extreme agility, 

 rather than the swiftness of their flight ; for 

 every order would soon be at an end, if the 

 eagle, to its own swiftness of wing, added the 

 versatility of the sparrow. 



Another circumstance which tends to render 

 the tyranny of these animals more support- 

 able, is, that they are less fruitful than other 

 birds ; breeding but few at a time. Those of 

 the larger kind seldom produce above four 

 eggs, often but two ; those of the smaller 

 kinds, never above six or seven. The pigeon, 

 it. is true, which is their prey, never breeds 

 above two at a time ; but then she breeds 

 every month in the year. The carnivorous 

 kinds only breed annually, and, of conse- 

 quence, their fecundity is small in compari- 

 son. 



As they are fierce by nature, and are diffi- 

 cult to be tamed, so this fierceness extends 

 even to their young, which they force from 

 the nest sooner than birds of the gentler kind. 

 Other birds seldom forsake their young till 

 able, completely, to provide for themselves: 

 the rapacious kinds expel them from the nest 

 at a time when they still should protect and 

 support them. This severity to their young 

 proceeds from the necessity of providing for 

 themselves. All animals that, by the con- 

 formation of their stomach and intestines, are 

 obliged to live upon flesh, and support them- 

 selves by prey, though they may be mild 

 when young, soon become fierce and mischiev- 

 ous, by the very habit of using those arms 

 with which they are supplied by nature. As 

 it is only by the destruction of other animals 

 that they can subsist, they become more furi- 

 ous every day ; and even the parental feelings 

 are overpowered in their general habits of 

 cruelty. If the power of obtaining a supply 

 be difficult, the old ones soon drive their brood 

 from the nest to shift for themselves, and often 

 destroy them in a fit of fury caused by hun- 

 ger. 



Another effect of this natural and acquired 

 severity is, that almost all birds of prey are 

 unsociable. It has long been observed by 

 Aristotle, that all birds with crooked beaks 

 and talons are solitary: like quadrupeds of 

 the cat kind, they lead a lonely wandering 

 life, and are united only in pairs, by that in- 

 stinct which overpowers their rapacious habits 

 of enmity with all other animals. As the 

 male and female are often necessary to each 

 other in their pursuits, so they sometimes live 

 together ; but except at certain seasons, they 

 most usually prowl alone ; and, like robbers, 

 enjoy in solitude the fruits of their plunder. 



All birds of prey are remarkable for one 

 singularity, for which it is not easy to account. 

 All the males of these birds are about a third 

 less, and weaker than the females, contrary 

 to what obtains among quadrupeds, among 

 which the males are always the largest and 

 the boldest : from thence the male is called by 

 falconers a tarcel; that is, a tierce or third 

 less than the other. The reason of this dif- 

 ference cannot proceed from the necessity of 

 a larger body in the female for the purpose of 

 breeding, and that her volume is thus in- 

 creased by the quantity of her eggs; for in 

 other birds, that breed much faster, and that 

 lay in much greater proportion, such as the 

 hen, the duck, or the pheasant, the male is by 

 much the largest of the two. 



Whatever be the cause, certain it is, that 

 the females, as Willoughby expresses it, are 

 of greater size, more beautiful and lovely for 

 shape and colours, stronger, more fierce and 

 generous, than the males; whether it may be 

 that it is necessary for the female to be thus 

 superior, as it is incumbent upon her to pro- 

 vide, not only for herself, but her young ones 

 also. 



These birds, like quadrupeds of the carni- 

 vorous kind, are all lean and meagre. Their 

 flesh is stringy and ill-tasted, soon corrupting, 

 and tinctured with the flavour of that animal 

 food upon which they subsist. Nevertheless, 

 Belonius asserts, that many people admire the 

 flesh of the vulture and falcon, and dress them 

 for eating, when they meet with any accident 

 that unfits them for the chase. He asserts, 

 that the osprey, a species of the eagle, when 

 young, is excellent food ; but he contents him- 

 self with advising us to breed these birds up 

 for our pleasure rather in the field, than for 

 the table. 



Of land birds of a rapacious nature, there 

 are five kinds. The eagle kind, the hawk 

 kind, the vulture kind, the horned and the 

 screech owl kind. The distinctive marks of 

 this class are taken from their claws and beak : 

 their toes are separated : their legs are feath- 

 ered to the heel : their toes are four in num. 

 ber ; three before, one behind < their beak is 

 short, thick, and crooked. 



The eagle kind is distinguished from the 

 rest by his beak, which is straight till towards 

 the end, when it begins to hook downwards. 



The vulture kind is distinguished by the 

 head and neck ; which are without feathers. 



The hawk kind by the beak ; being hooked 

 from the very root. 



The horned owl by the feathers at the base 

 of the bill standing forwards ; and by some 

 feathers on the head that stand out, resem- 

 bling horns. 



The screech-owl by the feathers at the base- 

 of the bill standing forward, and being with- 



