28 Introduction. 



man. Some observers, who have seen troops of ravens hurrying 

 along to the banquet of some fallen animal, where not a bird till 

 then could be seen, have attributed their discovery of the feast, 

 not to the true cause, their keen sense of seeing and smelling, 

 but to some unknown faculty, thinking it impossible that scent 

 could be carried so far, and having little conception of the 

 superior acuteness of some of the senses of birds. Again, the 

 rook discovers the grubs hidden in the earth by the same 

 wonderful sense; the carrion-crow scents the tempting morsel 

 from a distance; the magpie is not behind-hand in the same 

 perception. Some of the water-birds, too, seem to have this 

 faculty very highly developed. The curlew will take wing when 

 you are at a great distance, if you approach them down the wind ; 

 the hungry woodcock will discover by the smell where it will be 

 profitable to probe the mud with his beak. Most of the ducks 

 are so sensitive, that the man who works a decoy knows full 

 well that he has no chance of success unless he keeps to leeward 

 of the flock ; and, as an additional precaution, burns a piece of 

 turf, and holds it smoking in his hand, to prevent their scenting 

 him. Thus we see the faculty of scent no less conspicuous in 

 birds than in other animals : the well-known properties of the 

 pointer and the foxhound will not surpass the exquisite sense of 

 smell of some of the birds, and even the notorious bloodhound 

 will scarcely outdo the vulture in the same faculty. 



But besides these three powers of seeing, hearing, and smelling, 

 with which we have proved them to be remarkably endowed, we 

 find the feathered tribe gifted with the power of feeling or handling 

 (if I may apply such a term to the beak), not usually allotted to 

 the inferior races of the animal kingdom. Their beaks serve 

 them for hands, as well as for lips and teeth, and wonderfully are 

 they adapted to a variety of purposes ; but as, in addition to their 

 exceeding interest and variety of form and use, the beaks are 

 principal characteristics whereby to distinguish the position 

 birds are entitled to hold, and their habits, I propose to consider 

 this subject separately, so for the present pass it by. 



Again, they are furnished with tongues, which are not only 



