50 HlSXORY OF 



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 astonishingly 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 wTapt in 

 fat to increase the powers of digestion j 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 rapa- 

 city. 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 ; and 

 are gloomy intruders on the general joy of the landscape. They 

 spread terror wherever they approach : all that variety of music 

 which but a moment before enlivened the grove, at their appear- 

 ing is instantly at an end : every order of lesser birds seek for 

 safety, either by concealment or flight ; and some are even dri- 

 ven 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 contrived wisely for their safety, that every order of carnivo- 

 rous birds seek only for such as are of the size most approach, 

 ing their own. The eagle flies at the bustard or the pheasant ; 

 the sparrow-hawk pursues the thrush and linnet. Nature has 

 provided that each species should make w ar only on such as are 

 furnished with adequate means of escape. The smallest birds 

 avoid their pursuers by the extreme agility, rather than the 

 swiftness of their flight ; for every order would soon be at an 

 • end, if the eagle, to its own swiftness of wing, added the versa- 

 tility of the sparrow. 



Another circumstance which tends to render the tyranny of 

 these animals more supportable, is, that they are less fruittul 



