BIRDS. 411 



nearly To. The family of Auks lays only one egg for each hatching ; the Divers two; 

 Gulls three ; the Crow four ; Swallows from five to eight ; Ducks, and the Gallina- 

 ceous birds, lay a great number. 



As to place, fome birds, as the Tropic-bird, only inhabit within the Tropics ; fome 

 only within the Polar Circle, as the Fulmar Petrel ; fome in particular countries, as the 

 Cape Petrel at the Cape of Good Hope; the Bird-of-paradife, and Peacocks, in India; 

 the Oftrich in Africa; the Screamer, and Trumpeter, in America. Thofe without 

 quills, impcrmes, and with fettered legs, compedes, and the Petrel genus, inhabit the 

 ocean ; the Divers are found moflly in lakes ; the Merganfer in rivers ; the Water 

 Ouzel about catarafts ; Plovers near the fea more; Snipes 'in marfhes ; the Buftard in 

 champaign fields ; the Shrike in the woods ; Pafferine birds among trees, bullies, and 

 hedges ; the Owl in rocky places ; the Magpie and Swallow about villages ; the Snow 

 Bunting and others on the tops of mountains, &c. But all birds do not always conti- 

 nue" in the fame countries ; great numbers perform regular migrations at particular 

 feafons, quitting one part of the country for fome othei where their food is more plen- 

 tiful, and returning again at another feafon to their original habitations; thus many 

 birds which live in the northern frigid regions during the fummer, migrate fouth- 

 wards before winter in queft of provifions, and return north again in fpring or fum- 

 mer. This is done by mofl of the foft billed birds, tenuirojlres, and Pafferine birds, 

 pa/feres, on account of the fcarcity of infects, their ordinary food, in the cold feafon of 

 thefe northern countries ; the Grallae, or Waders, are forced to the fame annual 

 change of place, becaufe the frofl prevents them from fearching for worms and am- 

 phibious animals in the mud; the Anferine birds, anferes, are in winter obliged to fly 

 fouthwards, as the water being frozen hinders them from catching filh, &c. The long 

 and warmer days of fummer, which again bring with them plenty of food, recal 

 thefe birds to their northern habitations on purpofe to breed. A fmall number of 

 birds, inffead of migrating for food during winter, become torpid, and continue all 

 the cold feafon in a ftate almoft refembling death, during which they ceafe to feed, or 

 to digeft, and hardly breath, if at all ; this ftate is called Hybernation, hybernatio. 



The food of birds is various in the different kinds : Some are carnivorous ; the Fal- 

 ■con tribe and Crows preys on quadrupeds, birds, and carcaffes of all kinds ; the Anfe- 

 rine tribe lives on fifties ; the Humming birds, and fofr-billed Pafferine birds, live chief- 

 ly on infects; the Raven on the larvae of infects, and on fnails ; the Cuckow on Lepi- 

 dopterous infeQs ; the Ani, Beefeater, Water Ouzel, and Swallows, on various kinds 

 of infefts; the Oyfter-catcher on Conchs or fhell nfh; the Jabiru on Crabs, &c. Some 



F f f 2 live 



