RAPACIOUS BIRDS. 65 



sight so fitted as to see objects in darkness with 

 extreme precision. 



Their internal parts are equally formed for the 

 food they seek for. Their stomach is simple and 

 membranous, and wrapped in fat to increase the 

 powers of digestion ; and their intestines are 

 short and glandular. As their food is succulent 

 and juicy, they want no length of intestinal tube 

 to form it into proper nourishment. Their food 

 is flesh, which does not require a slow digestion 

 to be converted into a similitude of substance to 

 their own. 



Thus formed for war, they lead a life of soli- 

 tude and rapacity. They inhabit, by choice, the 

 most lonely places, and the most desert moun- 

 tains. They make their nests in the clefts of 

 rocks, and on the highest and most inaccessible 

 trees of the forest. Whenever they appear in the 

 cultivated plain, or the warbling grove, it is only 

 for the purposes of depredation, and are gloomy 

 intruders on the general joy of the landscape. 

 They spread terror wherever they approach : all 

 that variety of music, which but a moment be- 

 fore enlivened the grove, at their appearing is 

 instantly at an end ; every order of lesser birds 

 seek for safety, either by concealment or flight ; 

 and some are even driven to take protection with 

 man, to avoid their less merciful pursuers. 



It would indeed be fatal to all the smaller race 

 of birds, if, as they are weaker than all, they were 

 also pursued by all ; but it is contrived wisely 

 for their safety, that every order of carnivorous 

 birds seek only for such as are of the size most 



VOL. IV. E 



