226 



days after they are hatched. During this time, the 

 old ones are very assiduous in supplying them with 

 grass, and very careful to defend them from dan* 

 ger : nay, they encounter every danger in their de 

 fence. 



AJ1 land-birds of the rapacious kind, are furnished 

 with a large head, and strong crooked beak, notched 

 .at the end, for the purpose of tearing their prey. 

 They have strong short legs, and sharp crooked ta- 

 lons for the purpose of seizing it. Their bodies are 

 formed for war, being fibrous and muscular ; and 

 their wings for swiftness of flight, being well fea- 

 thered and expansive. The sight of such as prey by 

 day is astonishingly quick : and such as ravage by 

 .night, have their sight so fitted as to see objects in 

 darkness* Thus formed for war, they lead a life of 

 solitude, they inhabit by choice, the most lonely pla. 

 ces. They make their nests in the clefts of rocks, and 

 in the highest and most inaccessible trees of the 

 forest. Whenever they appear in the cultivated plain 

 it is only for the purposes of depredation, and they 

 spread terror wherever they approach : all the variety 

 of music, which but a moment before enlivened the 

 grove, at their approach is at an end : lesser birds 

 seek for safety, either by concealment or iiighf, and 

 some are even driven to take protection with man, 

 to avoid their less merciful pursuers. 



It would indeed be fatal to all the smaller race of 

 birds, if as they are weaker than ail ? they were also 

 pursued by all : but it is contrived wisely, that every 

 order of carnivorous birds seek only for such as 

 are of a size approaching their own. The eagle flies 

 at the bustard or the pheasant, the sparrow-hawk at 

 the thrush and the linnet. And nature has provided 

 that each species should make war only on such as 

 are furnished wiih 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 ^agle, to its 

 svufiucss of wing, added the versatility of the sparrow. 



