THE GROUS. 33 



three or four miles, and yet when it is made within a 

 few rods of a person who had never heard it before, 

 he would think it a mile or two off. This singular 

 circumstance seems to be owing to the manner in 

 which the noise is made, for as we have already sta- 

 ted, it is done by means of the two bags on each side 

 of his neck ; and it is probably by forcing the air from 

 them through the wind pipe, and before it reaches the 

 bill, that the sound is produced. In this respect, it 

 resembles the tones made by men who are called 

 ventriloquists, and who have the power of speaking 

 with a voice so deep in the throat as to make it appear 

 at a distance, though the person who makes it stands 

 next to the hearer. 



The Creator has made every tribe of birds as well 

 as other animals, with some peculiar traits, which dis- 

 tinguish them from all other kinds, and by which each 

 kind may be known as certainly as the features of the 

 human face distinguish one person from another. 



Each tribe, also, is endowed with such habits and 

 shapes, as best fit them for the stations and places 

 which they occupy. And we may observe, also, that 

 each kind has a mode of escape, or of protection from 

 their enemies, which is peculiar to themselves, and 

 which is particularly adapted to their situation. In 

 the Grous, a bird which cannot fly to a great distance, 

 one mode of escape, is the power of uttering a sound 

 so deceptive as to seem at a distance, when, in fact, 

 it is quite near, and, at the same time, so loud, as to 

 appear near, when it is several miles off. In this man- 

 ner the hunter is deceived and misled, and knows not 

 where to look for his game, and thus the bird escapes. 

 4* 



