512 THE PHILOSOPHY 



* friend of ours, a perfon of very good credit, that his father kep£ 



* a goofe known to be fourfcore years of age, and as yet found and 

 ' lufty, and like enough to have lived many years longer, had he 



* not been forced to kill her for her mifchievoufnefs, worrying and 

 ' deftroying the young geefe and goflings.' In another part of his 

 valuable work, Mr Willoughby tells us, ' that he has been aflured 

 ' by credible perfons, that a goofe will live a hundred years or 

 ' more *.' In man and quadrupeds, the duration of life bears fome 

 proportion to the times of their growth. But, in birds, their growth, 

 and their powers of reproduction, are more rapid, though they live 

 proportionally longer. Some fpecies of birds, as all the gallinaceous 

 tribes, can make ufe of their limbs the moment they iffue from the 

 iLell ; and, in a month or five weeks after, they can likewife employ 

 their wings. A dung-hill cock has the capacity of engendering at 

 the age of four months, but does not acquire his full growth in lefs 

 than a year. The fmaller birds are perfedl In four or five months. 

 They grow mor« rapidly, and produce much fooner than quadru- 

 peds, and yet they live proportionally much longer. In man and 

 quadrupeds, the duration of life is about fix or feven times more 

 than that of their growth. According to this rule, a cock or a par- 

 rot, who arrive at their full growth and powers in one year, fhould 

 not live above fix or feven. But Nature knows none of our rules. 

 She accommodates her condu(ft, not to our Ihallow, and often pre- 

 fumptuous conclutions, but to the prefervation of fpecies, and to the 

 fupport and general balance of the great fyftem of animated beings. 

 Savens, though capable of providing for themfelves in lefs than a 

 year, fometiraes have their lives protraded more than a century. 

 The Count de BufTon informs us, that, in feveral places of France^ 

 ravens have been known to arrive at this extraordinary age, and 



thatj, 



* Ornithology, page 256. 



