PROGRESSION IN OR THROUGH THE AIR. 



205 



which enables them to act through its instrumentality with 

 marvellous dexterity and power, and to expend or reserve 

 their energies, which they can do with the utmost exactitude, 

 in their apparently interminable flights. 



Lifting-capacity of Birds, — The muscular power in birds is 

 usually greatly in excess, particularly in birds of prey, as, e,g. 

 the condors, eagles, hawks, and owls. The eagles are remark- 

 able in this respect — these having been known to carry off 

 young deer, lambs, rabbits, hares, and, it is averred, even 

 young children. Many of the fishing birds, as the pelicans 

 and herons, can likewise carry considerable loads of fish;^ 

 and even the smaller birds, as the records of spring show, 

 are capable of transporting comparatively large twigs for 

 building purposes. I myself have seen an owl, which weighed 

 a little over 10 ounces, lift 2 J ounces, or a quarter of its own 

 weight, without effort, after having fasted twenty-four hours ; 

 and a friend informs me that a short time ago a splendid 

 osprey was shot at Littlehampton, on the coast of Sussex, 

 with a fish 5 lbs. weight in its mouth. 



There are many points in the history and economy of birds 

 which crave our sympathy while they elicit our admiration. 

 Their indubitable courage and miraculous powers of flight 

 invest them with a superior dignity, and secure for their 

 order almost a duality of existence. The swallow, tiny and 

 inconsiderable as it may appear, can traverse 1000 miles at a 

 single journey ; and the albatross, despising compass and land- 

 mark, trusts himself boldly for weeks together to the mercy 

 or fury of the mighty ocean. The huge condor of the Andes 

 lifts himself by his sovereign will to a height where no sound 

 is heard, save the airy tread of his vast pinions, and, from an 

 unseen point, surveys in solitary grandeur the wide range of 

 plain and pasture-land ;^ while the bald eagle, nothing 

 daunted by the din and indescribable confusion of the queen 

 of waterfalls, the stupendous Niagara, sits composedly on his 



^ The lieron is in the habit, when pursued by the falcon, of disgorging the 

 contents of his crop in order to reduce his weight. / 

 2 Tlie condor, on some occasions, attains an altitude of six miles. 



