INTRODUCTION. XXviL 



voice,* they can communicate their sentiments and intentions 

 to each other, and are enabled to act by mutual concert : 

 that of the wing, by which they can remove from place to 

 place with inconceivable celerity and dispatch, is peculiar 

 to the feathered tribes; it gives them a decided superiority 

 over every species of quadrupeds, and affords them the 

 greatest means of security from those attacks to which their 

 weakness would otherwise expose them. The social in- 

 stinct among birds is peculiarly lively and interesting, and 

 likewise proves an effectual means of preservation from the 

 various arts which are made use of to circumvent and 

 destroy them. Individuals may perish, and the species may 

 suffer a diminution of its numbers; but its instincts, habits, 

 and ceconomy remain entire. 



* White's Selborne. 



