OF NATURAL HISTORY. 513: 



that, at all times, and in all countries, they have been efteeraed birds 

 of great longevity *. 



* Eagles,' fays Mr Pennant, ' are remarkable for their longevity, 



* and for their power of fuftaining a long abftinence from food. A 



* golden eagle, v?hich has now been nine years in the pofleffion of 

 ' Owen Holland, Efq; of Conway, lived thirty-two years with the 

 ' gentleman who made him a prefent of it ; but what its age was 



* when the latter received it from Ireland is unknown. The fame 

 ' bird alfo furnifhes a proof of the truth of the other remark, ha- 



* ving once, through the negledt of fervants, endured hunger for 



* twenty-one days, without any fuftenance whatfoever f.' The pe- 

 lican that was kept at Mechlin in Brabant during the reign of the 

 Emperor Maximilian, was believed to be eighty years of age. 



* What is reported of the age of eagles and ravens,' fays Mr Wil- 

 loughby, ' although it exceeds all belief, yet doth it evince that 



* thofe birds are very long-lived J.' Pigeons have been known to 

 live from twenty to twenty-two years. Even the fmaller birds live 

 very long in proportion to the time of their growth and the fize of 

 their bodies. Linnets, gold-finches, &c. often live in cages fifteen, 

 twenty, and even twenty-three years. 



Fijhes, whofe bones are more cartilaginous than thofe of men and 

 -quadrupeds, are long of acquiring their utmoft growth, and many 

 of them live to great ages. Gefner gives an inftance of a carp in 

 Germany which he knew to be one hundred years old ||. Buffon 

 informs us, that, in the Count Maurepa's ponds, he had feen carps 

 of one hundred and fifty years of age, and that the fadl was attefted 

 t 3T in 



* Hift. Nat. des Oifeaux, torn. 3. pag. 32. 



f Britifli Zoology, vol. i. 8vo edit, page 113. 

 X Ornithology, page 14. 

 11 Gefner de Pifc. pag. 312. 



