472 CLASS AVES. 



and meat ; the old ones readily eat grain of all kinds and 

 bread. The flesh of the young, without being very succulent, 

 has yet an agreeable flavour ; but that of the old ones is 

 black, and invariably hard and indigestible. 



The sagacious instinct of the agami, and its social manners, 

 have suggested to many naturalists the desire of seeing it 

 liabituated to our European climates, and domesticated among 

 us. The experiment should first be tried in our most tem- 

 perate regions, and a sufficient space, and a situation suitable 

 to their habits, be allotted to the individuals imported, so that 

 they might thrive and multiply. 



It is quite evident, from all that we have now stated, con- 

 cerning the agami, that it has no business in the place which 

 it occupies in the systems of naturalists. The length of its 

 legs alone entitle it to be ranked with the grallae, or long- 

 legged birds ; but to fix it among the waders, or water birds, 

 is truly absurd. Its habits, its manners, many points of its con- 

 formation, the very kind of noise above mentioned which it 

 produces, its docile and social character, the nature of 

 its aliment, and the places which it inhabits by preference, all 

 most clearly link it with the gallinae. Yet perhaps the con- 

 formation of its digestive organs will not permit us to place it 

 exactly in that order. This bird, in fact, only furnishes an 

 additional proof of the difficulty, or rather the impossibility, 

 of making Nature bend to our artificial systems, or even of fol- 

 lowing her through the endless variations and connexions of 

 existence, in the methods which we have termed natural. This, 

 however, affbrds no reason for abandoning such methods. 

 Every approximation to a more accurate picture of creation 

 as it is, is a step gained in the progress of true science. 



In reading the history of the agami, we almost feel tempted 

 to accuse Nature of partiality, in having fixed this elegant and 

 and social bird in the depth of remote and deserted forests. 

 But, to speak with propriety, there are no deserts in natvire. 

 It is man, who, in the pride of his heart, and the nar- 



