1 16 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 



servations on record fully to establish this point in 

 all cases, however it may hold in some. After all, 

 this leaves the original question, as it regards those 

 species which remain with us the whole year, un- 

 touched ; and these constitute a great proportion of 

 the whole. How then, it may be asked, is it with 

 respect to them ? 



For my part, I should be inclined to think that, in 

 most instances, the mortality would not be confined 

 mainly to the old birds or to the young, but divided 

 between them ; and that it was not, on the whole, 

 more general during one season than the other. 

 Young birds, that had but lately quitted the nest, 

 would, during summer and autumn, most readily 

 fall a prey to rapacious animals ; * while the old, 

 from their enfeebled powers, would perhaps be 

 less able to contend with the severities of winter. 

 And a certain proportion of these also must fur- 

 nish food for the Raptores, at least during winter. 

 Probably then, from these causes combined, but 

 few individuals attain to old age, or fail of meeting, 

 sooner or later, with an untimely end. The law 

 by which animals prey upon each other, seems to 

 be an express provision of Nature, as a means of ter- 

 minating their existence, without subjecting them 

 to that amount of previous suffering and priva- 



* Thus White, speaking of a pair of sparrow-hawks, in the 

 month of July, says, that they " had been observed to make sad 

 havoc for some days among the new-flown swallows and martins ; 

 which, being but lately out of their nests, had not acquired those 

 powers and command of wing that enable them, when more ma- 

 ture, to set such enemies at defiance." Lett. XLIII. to Pennant. 



