8 FACULTIES OP BIRDS. 



descries*." We have ourselves more than once seen 

 the osprey dash down from a height of two or three 

 hundred feet upon a fish of no considerable size, and 

 which a man could with difficulty have perceived at 

 the same distance f; but, in an instance elsewhere 

 mentioned J, we observed the golden eagle (Aquila 

 chrysaetas, ALDROVAND), at Mehlem on the Rhine, 

 beating about among the orchards, as if it were on the 

 look out for a hare or a rabbit ; and if it were allowed 

 to make a single instance like this overturn a general 

 conclusion, we might oppose it to the testimonies 

 already adduced. 



Ross, in his voyage to Baffin's Bay, proved that a 

 man under favourable circumstances could see over 

 the surface of the ocean to the extent of one hundred 

 and fifty English miles. It is not probable that any 

 animal exceeds this power of vision, though birds 

 perhaps excel men and most quadrupeds in sharpness 

 of sight. M. Schmidt threw, at a considerable distance 

 from a thrush (Turdus musicus), a few small beetles, 

 of a pale grey colour, which the unassisted human 

 eye could not discover, yet the thrush observed them 

 immediately and devoured them. The bottle-tit 

 (Parus caudatus) flits with great quickness among 

 the branches of trees, and finds on the very smooth 

 bark its particular food, where nothing is perceptible 

 to the naked eye, though insects can be detected there 

 by the microscope. A very tame redbreast (Rhon- 

 della rubecula) discovered crumbs from the height of 

 the branch where it usually sat, at the distance of 

 eighteen feet from the ground, the instant they were 

 thrown down, and this by bending its head to one 

 side, and using, of course, only one eye. At the same 

 distance a quail (Coturnix major, BRISSON) dis- 



* Oiseaux d'Afrique, i. 18. , t J. R. 



| Architecture of Birds, p. 174. 



