Faculties Sight, Hearing. 25 



careering through the air on rapid wing and dashing past like a 

 meteor, not only can see to steer its way clear of all obstacles, 

 but can discern the passing insect, which it catches in its mouth 

 as it rushes by. The pigeons, mounting high into the air, can 

 perceive the grain which they are seeking from an almost incre- 

 dible distance. The redstart will avoid the shot by rising on 

 seeing the flash from the cap ; and many of the ducks, and 

 especially the divers, disappear under water the moment the 

 trigger is pulled, seeing the flash and diving almost instan- 

 taneously, and so escaping the death intended for them. These 

 are a few instances of the extraordinary powers of vision 

 belonging to the feathered race. An eminent French naturalist 

 has calculated it to be about nine times more extensive than that 

 of man ; and anatomists, after dissecting the eye of the golden 

 eagle, or one of that family, whose sight is considered the keenest 

 of all, declare that nothing can be conceived more perfect than 

 the structure. The eye of the falcon, which feeds by day, will 

 differ from that of the owl, which feeds by night ; both will differ 

 from that of the swan, which has to procure its food under water; 

 but all are exactly adapted to their own peculiar spheres of 

 action, all are capable of very astonishing sight. 



Again, the hearing of some is so subtle, that they can detect 

 their prey when hidden from view by this sense alone, and by 

 the same power are ever on the alert for the approach of an 

 enemy. As the eagle is the most renowned for powers of vision, 

 so we may without hesitation pronounce the owls to possess a 

 more acute sense of hearing than any other family; it seems 

 that this faculty is given them in common with other noc- 

 turnal and crepuscular animals ; as, for example, the bats, to 

 enable them to guide themselves in their flight on the darkest 

 nights, and to direct them to their prey. The organs with 

 which they are furnished to secure this end are of a very 

 remarkable construction, and developed to an extraordinary 

 extent ; the auditory opening, or ear-conch, is sometimes 

 extremely large, and is then furnished with an opercidum 

 or cover, which they can open and close at will ; but in those 



