514 THE PHILOSOPHY 



fix or feven. But Nature knows none of our rules. She 

 accommodates her conduct, not to our fhallow, and often 

 prefumptuous conchifions, but to the prefervation of fpecies, 

 and to the fupport and general balance of the great fyftem of 

 animated beings. Ravens, though capable of providing for 

 themfelves in lefs than a year, fometimes have their lives 

 protracted more than a century. The Count de BufFon in- 

 forms us, ih^it, in feveral places of France, ravens have been 

 known to arrive at this extraordinary age, and that, at all 

 times, and in all countries, they have been efteemed birds of 

 great longevity*. 



< Eagles,' iays Mr. Pennant, < are remarkable for their 



< longevity, and for their power of fuftaining a long abfti- 



* nence from food. A golden eagle, which has now been 



< nine years in the polTeflion of Owen Holland, Efq. of Con- 



* way, lived thirty-two years with the gentleman who made 



* him a prefent of it *, but what its age was when the latter 



* received it from Ireland is unknown. The fame bird alfo 



* furniflies a p oof of the truth of the other remark, having 



* once, through the neglecSt of fervants, endured hunger for 



* twenty -one days, without any fuftenance whatfoeverf.* 

 The pelican that was kept at Mechlin in Brabant during the 

 reign of the Emperor Maximilian, was believed to be eighty 

 years of age. ' What is reported of the age of eagles and 



< ravens,* fays Mr. Willoughby, * although it exceeds all be- 

 ^ lief, yet doth it evince that thofe birds are very long-livedj.* 

 Pigeons have been known to live from twenty to twentyi- 

 two years. Even the fmaller birds live very long in propor- 

 tion to the time of their growth and the Hze of their bodies. 

 Linnets, gold-finches, &c. often live in cages fifteen, twenty, 

 ^nd even twenty-three years. 



• Hift. Nat, des Oifeaux, torn. 3. page 32, 

 f Britifh Zoology, vol i. 8vo. edit, page 123. 

 ^ Ornitholo;^y, page j 4. 



