BIRDS IN GENERAL. 183 



and, when they have passed the summer here, wing 

 their flight haekward to their native plains. 



Amongst the vast quantity of water-fowl that fre- 

 quent our shores, it is amazing to relleet how few are 

 known to breed amongst us ; the number ascertained 

 is only five, the tame swan, the tame goose, the shel- 

 drake, the eider-duck, and a few of the wild-ducks : 

 the rest contribute to form that astonishing multitude 

 of water-fowl which annually repair to the dreary lakes 

 of Lapland from the more southern countries of Europe. 



It has often been a subject of astonishment, how ani- 

 mals, to all appearance so dull and irrational, should be 

 able to perform such immense journies, know which 

 way to steer their course, and at what period it is pro- 

 per for them to begin the arduous undertaking ; but it 

 is to be supposed that the same directing Power which 

 bestowed wisdom upon us, gave instinct to them, and 

 that they rather follow the weather than the country, 

 and bend their course either from colder into warmer 

 climates, or the reverse, as the air and their constitu- 

 tion may direct. 



That swallows, at the commencement of the Euro- 

 pean winter, regularly migrate into warmer climes, and 

 return again at the summer's approach, is a circum- 

 stance too well known and attested to admit of a doubt; 

 but that a number of them should remain here in a tor- 

 pid state, like bats, and make their retreat into old 

 walls or the hollows of trees, is a circumstance that has 

 neither been thoroughly accounted for, or properly 

 denned. 



Linnaeus divides all birds into six classes, namely, 

 birds of the rapacious kind, which he distinguishes by 

 their hooked beek, which is strong and notched at the 

 end j by their legs, which are short and muscular ; 



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