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266 Mr. Peabody on the Birds of Mass. 
effect a permanent change in the habits of a wild 
and wandering race, and to overcome that impulse, 
which, in the season of migration, acts so power- 
fully upon them, that some imprisoned birds with 
their wings clipped, have been known to break from 
their enclosures, and to set out on foot, for the 
region of Hudson's Bay. In many cases, no doubt, 
such attempts would succeed without difficulty ; 
and in others, what could not be done by a short 
experiment, might be accomplished by successive 
and persevering trials; valuable accessions might 
thus be made to the number of our domestic birds ; 
many might come into general use, which now 
only the sportsman and the epicure can enjoy, and 
races of wild birds be preserved, which will other- 
wise, in spite of all our game laws, soon disappear, 
and be lost from our forests and shores. 
WILLIAM B. O. PEABODY. 
