230 



NEW ENGLAND F^VKMER. 



Mat 



when hunted, because its lungs, rather than its gale announce the coming of the tempest by a 

 legs, are tired. 'peculiar form of bird's exjiression, which they 



Between the different members of a bird's body both seem to have borrowed from the vocabulary 

 there exists a sort equilibrium or balance, which 'of the frog — a pre-eminently nervous animal, to 

 prevents any one organ from obtaining undue de- whom the science of galvanism is greatlj in- 

 velopmont without another losing in the same debtcd. The cl)affinch, in unsettled weather, 

 proportion. Thus exaggerated length of wing recommends the traveller to take his umbrella, 

 generally coincides with very small feet and legs, 'and advises the housekeeper not to be in a hurry 

 Examples: the frigate-bird, the swift, and the 'to hang out her linen. Certain mystic geniuses 

 humming-bird. Feathered feet and legs are [have attributed this faculty of divination pos- 

 iiiostly sliort, as in pigeons, bantams, ptarmigan, Isessed by birds to some sj^ecial sensibility, ac- 

 and grouse. Nature always contrives to econo-'quainting them with the actions of the electric 

 mise out of one part of a bird's body the materi-' currents that traverse the atmosphere, and ac- 

 al which she ha^ too lavishly expended upon an-[curately informing them of their direction. Nor 

 other. Ciood walkers are bad flyers, and good ' is there any scientific argument which can be 

 flyers are bad walkers. First-rate runners and confidently opposed to such a theory. 

 divers are dt-prived of the power of rising in the' After the organs of sight and touch, the sense 

 air. Hall blind individuals, like owls, are as- of hearing comes next in importance. The deli- 

 tonishingly quick of hearing. Creatures clad inlcacy of the auditory powers of birds is sufficient- 



plain costume are recompensed by the powers of 

 song. The lark and tlie red-breast, victim spe- 

 cies (both being greedily eaten in France) have 

 the gift of2:)oesy bestowed upon them for their 

 future sorrows. 



The most ex(|uisite sense a bird possesses is 

 sight. The acuteness and sensibility of the reti- 



ly apparent from the passion for vocal music 

 which many of them manifest. It is an univer- 

 sally admitted physical law that, in all animals, 

 a close and invariable correspondence exists be- 

 tween the organs of voice and those of hearing. 

 Now birds, it will be seen, are the Stentors of na- 

 ture. The bull, who is an enormous quadruped, 

 na are in direct proportion to the rapidity of! endowed with an immensely capacious chest, 

 wing. The swift, according to Belon's calcula- doea not roar louder than the bittern, a moderate 

 tion,cansee a gnat distinctly at the distance of sized bird which frequents our ponds. In Lor- 

 inore than tiye hundred yards. TM kite hover- raine, they style him the bceuf d'eau, or "water- 



ing in the air at a height beyond our feeble 

 vision, perceives with ease the small dead minnow 

 floating on the surface of the lake, and is cogni- 

 zant of tiie imprudence of the poor little field- 

 mouse, as it timidly ventures out of its hole. All 

 God has done and made, lie has thoroughly well 



bull." A crane, trumpetting two or three 

 thousand yards above the surface of the earth, 

 pulls your head back just as violently as a friend 

 who asks you "How do you do ?" from the bal- 

 cony of a fifth-floor Avindow ; while the tlumder- 

 of !Mirabeau, who should venture to bar 



done and made. If He had not exactly propor-jaugue the Parisian populace from the top of the 

 tioned the visual organs of the bird of prey, or ~ " ' . - - 



the swallow to its dashing flight, the mere ex- 

 treme velocity of the bird would have only 

 served to break its neck. Partridges constantly 



towers of Notre Dame, would run a great risk of 

 not being able to convey a single word to a sin- 

 gle member of his congregation. 



Ascend in the air, by means of a balloon, in 



kill themselves against the iron wires of electric company with an old Atlas lion, whose formida- 

 telegraphs ; and nothing is more common than jble roaring once struck terror throughout Alge- 

 to find tlirushes and larks with dish)cated verte- rian wilderness; and, when you have risen only 

 brae, wlien tiiey fall into the large vertical net half a mile, make your travelling companion 

 which is used in France by twilight sportsmen, [give utterance to the most sonorous of his fine 

 Perhaps, after all we have said and seen, the 'chest-notes. Those will spend themselves in 

 sense of touch is the most perfect in birds, and empty space, without descending so low as the 

 the organs of feeling are endowed with a subtle- earth. But the royal kite, floating another half 

 ty of perception more excpiisite than even those|mile above you, will not let you lose a single in- 

 of sight. In fact, air being the most variable I flexion of his cat-like mewino;, miniatures though 

 and unstable of elements, birds would be endowed I they be of the lion's roar. '''It is probable," says 

 by nature with the gift of universal sensibility, iMr. Toussenel — M. Toussenel is always speaking 

 enabling them to appreciate and foretell thej through our humble interpretation— "that na- 

 8light(!st perturbations of the medium they inhab-jture has expended more genius in the construc- 

 it. In conseiiuence, the feathered race are armed 'tion of the larynx of a wren or a nightingale, 

 with a nervous impressionability, wliich compri-! than in fabricating tlie ruder throats of all the 

 868 the difl'.'rent properties of the hygrometer, | quadrupeds put together." 



the thermometer, the barometer, and the electro- 1 Smell and taste are but feeble in birds; and 

 scope. A tempest, whicli takes the man of sei-' they have no great occasion for either sense. A 

 ence by surprise, has, long before, given warning bird's appetite y«w.-;^ be enormous, in order to 

 to the birds of the sea. Tiie noddies, cormo- [supply the animal heat necessary for the main- 

 rants, gulls, and petrels, know twenty- four hours |tenatice of its superior nature. A bird is a loco- 

 beforehand, l)y nieans of the magnetic telegraph 'motive of the very first rank, a high pressure en- 

 which exists within them, the exact day and ino-lgine, which burns more fuel than three or four 

 ment when ocean is going in one of ids great! ordinary machines. "Animals feed, man eats," 

 rages, openiug wide his green abysses, and fling-jsays worthy Brillat Savarin. "Clever men alone 

 ing the angry f(jam of his waves in insult against know how to eat properly." This strictly true 

 the forehead of^ the clifl's. ISome birds are the gastrosophic aphorism is more exactly applicable 

 harbingers of wintry storms ; others usher in the to birds than to quadrupeds. Birds feed to as- 

 adveut of spring. The raven and the nightin-suage their hunger and to amuse themselves, not 



