BOOK IV. 



OF BIRDS OF THE PIE KIND. 



CHAPTER I. 



OP BIRDS OF THE PIE KIND IN GENERAL. 



IN marshalling our army of the feathered creation, we have placet! 

 in the van a race of birds long bred to war, and whose passion is 

 slaughter ; in the centre we have placed the slow and heavy laden 

 that are usually brought into the field to be destroyed ; we now come 

 to a kind of light infantry, that partake something of the spirit of the 

 two former, and yet belonging to neither. In this class we must be 

 content to marshal a numerous, irregular tribe, variously armed, with 

 different pursuits, appetites, and manners ; not formidably formed for 

 war, and get generally delighting in mischief; not slowly and useful- 

 ly obedient, and yet without any professed enmity to the rest of their 

 fellow-tenants of air. 



To speak without metaphor, under this class of birds we may ar- 

 range all that noisy, restless, chattering, teazing tribe that lies be- 

 tween the hen and the thrush, that, from the size of the raven to that 

 of the wood-pecker, flutter round our habitations, and rather with the 

 spirit of pilferers than of robbers, make free with the fruits of human 

 industry. 



Of all the other classes, this seems to be that which the least con- 

 tributes to furnish out the pleasures, or supply the necessaries of man. 

 The falcon hunts for him ; the poultry tribe supplies him with luxu- 

 rious food ; and the little sparrow race delight him with the melody 

 of their warblings. The crane kind make a studied variety in his 

 entertainments ; and the class of duck? are not only many of them de- 

 licate in their flesh, but extremely useful for their feathers. But in 

 the class of the pie kind there are few, except the pigeon, that are 

 any way useful. They serve rather to teaze man than to assist or 

 umuse him. Like faithless servants, they are fond of his neighbour- 

 nood, because they mostly live by his labour ; but their chief study 

 is what they can plunder in his absence, while their deaths make no 

 atonement for their depredation. 



But though with respect to man, this whole class is rather noxious 

 than beneficial, though he may consider them in this light as false, 

 noisy, troublesome neighbours, yet with respect to each other, no clas? 



