RELATION OP BIRDS TO MAN. 5 



which in birds are douhtless more varied tlian in any 

 of tlie otlier liigher animals. Some birds, like Penguins, 

 are so ac^uatie that they are practically helpless on land. 

 Their 'svings are too small to siipjDort them in the air, but 

 they fly under water with great rapidity, and might l)e 

 termed feathered porpoises. (_)tliers, like the Ostrich, 

 are terrestrial, and can neither fly nor swim. Others 

 still, like the Frigate Birds, are aerial. Their small 

 feet are of use only in perching, and their home is in 

 the air. 



If now we should compare specimens of Penguins, 

 Ostriches, and Frigate-ljirds with each other, and with 

 such widely different forms as Hummingliirds, Wood- 

 peckers, Parrots, and others, we would realize still more 

 clearly the I'emarkable amount of variation shown by 

 birds. This great difierence in form is accompanied by a 

 corresponding variation in habit, making possible, as 

 before remarked, the wide distribution of birds, which, 

 together with their size and abundance, renders them of 

 iucalculable importance to man. Their economic value, 

 however, may be more properly spoken of under 



The Eehttion of Bird >< to Man. — The relation of birds 

 to man is threefold — the scientific, the economic, and the 

 festhetic. No animals form more ])rofitable subjects for 

 the scientist than birds. The embryologist, the morphol- 

 ogist, and the systematist, the ]-)hilosophic naturalist and 

 the psychologist, all may find in them exhaustless mate- 

 rial for study. It is not my purpose, however, to speak 

 here of the science of ornithology. Let us learn some- 

 thing tif the ])ird in its haunts before taking it to the 

 laboratory. The living bird can not fail to attract us; 

 the dead bird — voiceless, motionless — we will lea\'e for 

 future dissection. 



The economic value <:)f birds to man lies in the service 

 they render in preventing the undue increase of insects, 



