THE PIE KIND. 



PART III. 



OF BIRDS OF THE PIE KIND. 



CHAPTER I. 



OF BIRDS OF THE PIE KIND IN GENERAL. 



IN marshalling our army of the feathered creation, 

 we have placed 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 in- 

 fantry, 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 nume- 

 rous irregular tribe, variously armed, with diffe- 

 rent pursuits, appetites, and manners ; not for- 

 midably formed for war, and yet generally de- 

 lighting in mischief; not slowly and usefully 

 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 arrange all that noisy, restless, chat- 

 tering, teasing tribe, that lies between the hen 

 and the thrush, that, from the size of the raven 

 down to that of the woodpecker, flutter round 



