BIRDS. 51 



ttiMi Other birds ; breeding but few at a time. Those of the 

 larger kind seldom produce above four eggs, often but two ; those 

 of the smaller kinds, never above six or seven. The pigeon, it is 

 true, which is their prey, never breeds above two at a time ; but 

 then she breeds every month in the year. The carnivorous kinds 

 only breed annually, and, of consequence, their fecundity is 

 small in comparison. 



As they are fierce by nature, and are difficult to be tamed, so 

 this fierceness extends even to their young, which they force 

 from the nest sooner than birds of the gentler kind. Other 

 birds seldom forsake their young till able, completely, to pro- 

 vide for themselves : the rapacious kinds expel them from the 

 nest at a time when they still should protect and support ihem. 

 This severity to their young proceeds from the necessity of 

 providing for themselves. All animals that, by the conforma- 

 tion of their stomach and intestines, are obliged to live ujmn 

 flesh, and support themselves by prey, though they may be mild 

 when young, soon become fierce and mischievous, by the very 

 habit of using those arms with which they are supplied by na- 

 ture. As it is only by the destruction of other animals that 

 they can subsist, they become more fuiious every day ; and even 

 the parental feelings are overpowered in their general habits of 

 cruelty. If the power of obtaining a supply be difficult, the old 

 ones soon drive their brood from the nest to shift for them- 

 selves, and often destroy them in a fit of fury caused by hunger. 



Another effect of this natural and acquired severity is, that 

 almost all birds of prey are unsociable. It has long been ob- 

 served by Aristotle, that all birds with crooked beaks and talons 

 are solitary : like quadrupeds of the cut kind, they lead a lonely 

 wandering life, and are united only in pairs, by that instinct 

 nhich overpowers their rapacious habits of enmity with all 

 other animals. As the male and female are often necessary to 

 each other in their pursuits, so they sometimes live together ; 

 but except at certain seasons, they most usually prowl alone ; 

 and, like robbers, enjoy in solitude the fruits of their plunder. 



All birds of prey are remarkable for one singularity, for 

 which it is not easy to account. All the males of these birds 

 are about a third less, and weaker than the females, contrary to 

 what obtains among quadrupeds, among which the males are 

 always the largest and the boldest : from thence the male i» 



e2 



