32 MANUAL OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



No place appears cheerful without them; the land- 

 scape seems imperfect in their absence. The Swal- 

 low must flit around the old church spire, the Eook 

 strut upon the glade, the Daw must harbour in the 

 ruined castle, the Wagtail follow the plough. The 

 comfort too which man derives from the domesti- 

 cated sorts is sufficient to interest him largely in 

 these, whether they are kept as articles of food, or 

 as objects of ornamental attraction. Nor is super- 

 stition a small source from which attraction has 

 sprung; numerous spots in Old England may even 

 now be found where the Raven's croak is still re- 

 garded as an omen of ill ; and many a ghost story 

 is still rehearsed around the winter fire, originating 

 in some benighted swain's having been startled in 

 the woods by the hobgoblin hootings of an Owl. 

 But it is in their native haunts where birds are best 

 seen to perfection, and where they interest us the 

 most, some being confined to comparatively limited 

 spots, — others having a world-wide range. The 

 Swallow tribes, impelled by the nature of their 

 food to lead a migratory life, may be said to live in 

 a perpetual summer, and to spend the greater part 

 of their existence on the wing ; the fine plumaged 

 Trogons, the Puff-birds, and the Jacamars, dwell 

 in the woods of tropical America; in the deep re- 

 cesses of the forest, the Todies, the Boatbills, and 

 the Motmots take up their abode, and there, in keep- 

 ing with the gloom which pervades such spots, utter 

 their melancholy croak. In the soft twilight the 

 Goatsuckers course the pasture land, the river mar- 



