- 
wh be 
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0 ae asain and 
RELATION OF BIRDS TO MAN. 5 
which in birds are doubtless more varied than in any 
of the other higher animals. Some birds, like Penguins, 
are so aquatic that they are practically helpless on land. 
Their wings are too small to support them in the air, but 
they fly under water with great rapidity, and might be 
termed feathered porpoises. Others, like the Ostrich, 
are terrestrial, and can neither fly nor swim. Others 
still, like the Frigate Birds, are aérial. Their small 
feet are of use only in perching, and their home is in 
the air. 
If now we should compare specimens of Penguins, 
Ostriches, and Frigate-birds with each other, and with 
such widely different forms .as Hummingbirds, Wood- 
peckers, Parrots, and others, we would realize still more 
clearly the remarkable amount of variation shown by 
birds. This great difference in form is accompanied by a 
corresponding variation in habit, making possible, as 
before remarked, the wide distribution of birds, which, 
together with their size and abundance, renders them of 
incalculable importance to man. Their economic value, 
however, may be more properly spoken of under 
The Relation of Birds to Man.—The relation of birds 
to man is threefold—the scientific, the economic, and the 
esthetic. No animals form more profitable subjects for 
the scientist than birds. The embryologist, the morphol- 
ogist, and the systematist, the philosophic naturalist and 
the psychologist, all may find in them exhaustless mate- 
rial for study. It is not my purpose, however, to speak 
here of the science of ornithology. Let us learn some- 
thing of the bird in its haunts before taking it to the 
laboratory. The living bird can not fail to attract us; 
the dead bird—voiceless, motionless—we will leave for 
future dissection. 
The economic value of birds to man ties i in the service 
they render in preventing the undue increase of insects, 
