HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



BOOK II. 



OF RAPACIOUS BIRDS. 



CHAP. I. 



OF RAPACIOUS BIRDS IN GENERAL. 1 



THERE seems to obtain a general resem- 

 blance in all the classes of nature. As among 

 quadrupeds, a part were seen to live upon the 

 vegetable productions of the earth, and another 

 part upon the flesh of each other ; so among 

 birds, some live upon vegetable food, and 

 others by rapine, destroying all such as want 

 force or swiftness to procure their safety. By 

 thus peopling the woods with animals of differ- 

 ent dispositions, nature has wisely provided 

 for the multiplication of life ; since, could we 

 suppose that there were as many animals pro- 

 duced as there were vegetables supplied to 

 sustain them, yet there might still be another 

 class of animals formed, which could find a 

 sufficient sustenance by feeding upon such of 

 the vegetable feeders as happened to fall by 

 the course of nature. By this contrivance, a 

 greater number will be sustained upon the 

 whole ; for the numbers would be but very 

 thin were every creature a candidate for the 

 same food. Thus, by supplying a variety of 

 appetites, nature has also multiplied Jife in 

 her productions. 



In thus varying their appetites, nature has 

 also varied the form of the animal ; and while 

 she has given some an instinctive passion for 

 animal food, she has also furnished them with 

 powers to obtain it. All land birds of the ra- 

 pacious kinds are furnished with a large head, 

 and a strong crooked beak, notched at the end, 

 for the purpose of tearing their prey. They 

 have strong short legs, and sharp crooked 



1 The animals of this order are all carnivorous: they 

 associate in pairs, build their nests in the most lofty 

 situations, and produce generally four young ones at a 

 brood : and the female is mostly larger than the male. 

 They consist of vultures, eagles, hawks, and owls. 



talons, for the purpose of seizing it. Their 

 bodies are formed for war, being fibrous and 

 muscular ; and their wings for swiftness of 

 flight, being well feathered and expansive. 

 The sight of such as prey by day is astonish- 

 ingly quick ; and such as ravage by night, 

 have their sight so fitted as to see objects in 

 darkness with extreme precision. 



Their internal parts are equally formed for 

 the food they seek for. Their stomach is simple 

 and membranous, and wrapt in fat to increase 

 the powers of digestion ; and their intestines 

 are short and glandular. As their food is 

 succulent and juicy, they want no length of 

 intestinal tube to form it into a proper nour- 

 ishment. Their food is flesh ; which does 

 not require a slow digestion to be converted 

 into a similitude of substance to their own. 



Thus formed for war, they lead a life of 

 solitude and rapacity. They inhabit by choice 

 the most lonely places, and the most desert 

 mountains. They make their nests in the 

 clifts of rocks, and on the highest and most 

 inaccessible trees of the forest. Whenever 

 they appear in the cultivated plain or the 

 warbling grove, it is only for the purposes of 

 depredation ; arid are gloomy intruders on the 

 general joy of the landscape. They spread 

 terror wherever they approach : all that var- 

 iety of music which but a moment before en- 

 livened the grove, at their appearing is in- 

 stantly at an end : every order of lesser birds 

 seek for safety, either by concealment or flight; 

 and some are even driven to take protection 

 with man, to avoid their less merciful pursuers. 



It would indeed be fatal to all the smaller 

 race of birds, if, as they are weaker than all, 

 they were also pursued by all ; but it is con- 

 trived wisely for their safety, that every order 

 of carnivorous birds seek only for such as are 

 of the size most approaching their own. The 

 eagle flies at the bustard or the pheasant ; the 



