180 BIRDS. 



One of the most curious particulars connected with the an- 

 nual migrations of birds is the circumstance of individuals 

 returning for a series of years to the same nestling-places. 

 Spallanzani having tied a thread of red silk round the leg of 

 a swallow which built its nest in his window, saw for three 

 seasons the same stranger with its progeny annually appear ; 

 Ekmark remarked a lame starling which occupied the same 

 nest in the hole of an old alder for a period of eight years ; 

 and similar instances are on record concerning many other 

 species of migratory birds. This wonderful direction of in- 

 stinct, which divides the innumerable flocks of birds in their 

 progress northward, and leads particular families to seek the 

 protection of the same roof, or the same chimney-top which 

 formerly sheltered them, affords a subject not the least worthy 

 of contemplation, among the thousand instances of wisdom and 

 beneficence which arrest the student of Nature at every step of 

 his progress. 



The flight of birds is very rapid. Birds of prey have been 

 observed to fly at the rate of about twenty leagues in an hour. 

 A falcon belonging to Henry II. of France escaping from Fon- 

 tainebleau, was found next day at Malta, a distance of 1350 

 miles, and recognized from the ring on its leg. Sir Hans 

 Sloane mentions that at Barbadoes the gulls came to feed and 

 returned two hundred miles in the same day. And Mr Audubon 

 relates of the migratory pigeons of America, that they have been 

 killed in the neighbourhood of New York with rice in their 

 crops, collected in the fields of Georgia and Carolina, the near- 

 estpoints at which this supply could have been obtained. Reason- 

 ing from the fact that the food of pigeons is entirely digested 

 in twelve hours, Mr Audubon concludes that they must have 

 travelled between 300 and 400 miles in six hours. 



Birds in general live long, considering how early they arrive 

 at maturity. Swans are said to live for a hundred years ; and 

 the pelican arrives at a similar age. Carnivorous birds, par- 

 ticularly the eagle, live to a very great age, perhaps beyond a 

 century ; the raven for a still longer period ; and parrots have 

 been known to live from sixty to eighty years. The life of Gal- 

 linaceous birds, such as the domestic fowl, the pheasant and 

 the partridge, seldom exceeds from twelve to twenty years. 



