202 The Bird 
of blood are found when a bird dies of fright, which oc- 
curs more often than in any other class of animals. Sports- 
men have fired at a bird, missed it completely, and yet 
have seen it drop dead as suddenly as if it had received 
the full charge. In captivity, herons succumb more 
frequently to fright apoplexy than other birds. When 
we assume the care of any creature, bird or beast, we 
should treat it as a timid child, and the person who moves 
quietly but unhesitatingly will win the confidence of 
wild creatures much sooner than when he alarms them 
by sudden motions, or arouses their suspicions by jerky 
half-hearted approaches. 
There are twenty-four nerves given off in pairs from 
the brain, which pass out through minute holes in the 
skull, and energize eye, ear, tongue, and other organs. 
Each of these has an individual name, and as they are 
homologous with similar nerves in ourselves, the same 
name is retained, such as the olfactory, or that leading 
to the nostril; and the pathetic, the function of which 
is to control the obliquely raising eye-muscle, producing 
a pathetic expression, although it must be confessed that 
the effect of this in the immobile face of a bird is not 
especially affecting. 
Back of the cerebellum is a thickening of the spinal 
cord, and after again narrowing it enters the bones of the 
neck and back, as the true spinal cord. At the base of 
the neck and near the thigh-joints this cord increases 
in size, large nerves being given off at these places to the 
wings and legs. It terminates in a fine white thread. 
