344 HABITS OP BIRDS. 



and the length of time it required to obtain maturity. 

 This notion might have some support in reason and 

 fact, occasionally, but in many cases was incorrect, 

 and, in regard to birds, had no foundation. Herbi- 

 vorous animals probably live longer than carnivorous 

 ones, vegetable food being most easily obtainable in 

 all seasons, in a regular and requisite supply ; 

 whereas animals that subsist on flesh, or by the 

 capture of prey, are necessitated at one period to 

 pine without food, and at another gorged with su- 

 perfluity : and when the bodily powers of rapacious 

 creatures become impaired, existence is difficult to 

 support, and gradually ceases ; but with herbivorous 

 animals in the same condition, supply is not equally 

 precarious, or wholly denied. Yet it is probable 

 that few animals, in a perfectly wild state, live to a 

 natural extinction of life. In a state of domestica- 

 tion, the small number of carnivorous creatures 

 about us are sheltered and fed with care, seldom are 

 in want of proper food, and at times are permitted to 

 await a gradual decay, continuing as long as nature 

 permits, and by such attentions many have attained 

 to a great age ; but this is rather an artificial than a 

 natural existence. Our herbivorous animals, being 

 kept mostly for profit, are seldom allowed to remain 

 beyond approaching age, and when its advances 

 trench upon our emoluments by diminishing the 

 supply of utility, we remove them. The uses of the 

 horse, though time may reduce them, are often pro- 

 tracted ; and our gratitude for past services or in- 

 terest in what remains, prompts us to support his 

 life by prepared food, for easy digestion, or requiring 

 little mastication, and he certainly by such means 

 attains to a longevity probably beyond the contin- 

 gencies of nature. I have still a favourite pony 

 for she has been a faithful and able performer of all 

 the duties required of her in my service for upwards 



