CHAP. V. DEFENCES OF BIRDS. 141 



other purpose but to feed upon the offal that may "be 

 cast overboard. 



(160.) The means of defence enjoyed by BIRDS are 

 much less varied, and apparently less efficacious, than 

 those which have been given to quadrupeds. Their pre- 

 servation, in short, depends, for the most part, on their 

 flights that is, in retreating from danger, rather than 

 encountering it. It might be thought that the power 

 so generally possessed by these creatures, of immediately 

 launching into an element of their own, would prevent 

 them from being attacked by terrestrial foes ; but such 

 are really their chief enemies. The whole tribe of 

 martens and weazels feed almost entirely upon the 

 feathered race ; the tiger-cats and lynxes do the same ; 

 and all the families of the small Carnivora are per- 

 petually on the watch for birds. Nor have they less 

 to apprehend from animals of their own class. The 

 whole of the falcons, the kites, the buzzards, and the 

 harriers live upon their weaker brethren ; and the 

 typical butcher-birds are their small but powerful foes. 

 They have enemies, also, among the reptiles. The 

 rattlesnake, it is well known, feeds upon small birds : 

 many others of America and India, probably, do the 

 same ; and serpents, in general, are proverbially great 

 destroyers of their eggs. Very few of the feathered 

 creation are provided with offensive weapons by which 

 these enemies can be repelled. Some in the rasorial 

 order, however, are armed with acute spurs, particularly 

 the Argus pheasants of India; and many use their 

 sharp-pointed beak as a spear, by which they can not 

 only drive away intruders, but, by well-directed blows, 

 deprive them of life. Others are capable of inflicting 

 severe blows with their wings ; and those of a larger 

 size, as the eagles and swans, have been known, in this 

 manner, to break the arm of a man. Upon the whole, 

 therefore, we find that birds are not so entirely des- 

 titute of offensive and defensive weapons as, at first, 

 might have been imagined : and we must recollect, that 

 in their power of flying they enjoy a mode of fleeing 



