170 FACULTIES OF BIRDS, 



the day advances, it usually quits the water to return 

 to its nest, or to pass to some other fishing station, as 

 \ve have never seen an instance of its fishing when 

 the day was advanced*. 



M. Buffon has given a singularly distorted view of 

 the facts we have just stated, erroneously inferring, as 

 it would appear, the degree of misery which he ascribes 

 to the heron, from the supposition of what he himself 

 would feel in similar circumstances. " It is peculiarly 

 unfortunate," as Dr. Drummond well remarks, " that 

 this sort of comparison is not adopted in the only 

 instances where it could be attended with good, 

 that is, when the animals around us are undergoing 

 pain and deprivation from our own tyranny and 

 oppression. If in these cases we would imagine 

 ourselves in their place, and think of the misery we 

 should experience by such change of situation, it might 

 be a powerful motive for our attempting to mitigate 

 their sufferings. In a state of nature no race of 

 animals is unhappy f." 



The dexterity with which fishing birds strike their 

 prey, is well exemplified in the common king-fisher 

 (Alcedo Ispidd)^ which, from living on small quick- 

 moving river fish, would starve if it did not far ex- 

 ceed them in acuteness of sight, and rapidity of 

 motion. 



In several species which feed upon fish and ma- 

 rine insects, the gizzard has the solvent glands placed 

 either within itself, or similarly to those of carnivo- 

 rous birds. It is probable, in the first case, that the 

 digestive fluid requires to be applied to the whole 

 surface of the food, which usually consists of fish 

 or reptiles, swallowed entire. The observations of 

 Mr. Bullock accord with this view. When at the Bass 

 Rock, he saw the gannet (Sula alba, MEYER) fish 

 for herrings, and frequently watched an individual 

 * J. K. t Letters, p, 214. 



