8o TYPES OF ANIMAL LIFE 



notice, its juvenile condition is most exceptional. Then, 

 part of its wing which answers to our hand is extra- 

 ordinarily large for a bird, and is provided with two long 

 claw-bearing fingers, by the help of which it is said to 

 move about more like a quadruped than the bird which 

 later on it proves itself unmistakably to be. 



The turkey is thus one of a goodly company of pecu- 

 liar American birds, but it remains for us to see what is 

 implied in the fact of its being a bird at all. It is im- 

 possible to understand fully what a turkey is unless we 

 know what are the characters it possesses in virtue of its 

 avian nature, characters which it shares with other 

 members of its class — the class of birds. 



Now a bird is one of the most wonderfully organised 

 of all animals, and almost the whole of its organisation 

 is arranged for flight. The turkey is not pai-ticularly 

 distinguished in this respect, nor are gallinaceous birds 

 generally, and some of them, as the argus pheasant, seem 

 to be quite exceptionally deficient in powerful and easy 

 aerial locomotion. Nevertheless they all participate in 

 those essential peculiarities which facilitate the rapid 

 gyrations and the wide wanderings of their more capable 

 cousins. The flights some birds will take are indeed 

 amazing. A falcon which belonged to Henry IV. of 

 France, is known to have flown from Fontainebleau to 

 Malta, a distance of 1350 miles, in one day. The 

 celebrated race horse named Eclipse would run at the 

 rate of a mile a minute, yet there are hawks which fly at 

 a pace of 150 miles an hour. But not only the rapidity, 

 but also the endurance which birds possess is wonderful. 

 Swallows will migrate from England to the south of 

 Africa. 



Oceanic birds are, as might be expected, exceptional 

 even among their class for long-continued flight. Many 



