332 



THE NATURALIST. 



conntry,) also lives for tlie most part on animal food. The Grallce, which 

 form a group of about thirty species, are almost entirely dependant on animal 

 food. Birds of ^TQj—Raptores — numbering as many species as the prece- 

 ding orde]', of course are exclusively zoophagous in their habits ; whilst of 

 the Gallince, in which they are about twenty known species, the following 

 members prefer animal food ; — the water-rail, Rallus aquaticus, the common 

 Coot, Fulica citra ; the Partridge, Perdix, Woodgrouse, Tetrao; bustard 

 Otis turda^ do so at certain periods. The Zijgodactyli, consisting of twelve 

 ' species, are very eager after animaculae ; the European K'uthatch, Sitta 

 Europoia, the Wryneck Yunx torquilla, and possibly the Woodpecker Picus, 

 and Cuckoo, Guculiis canorus, being the only zygodactylous birds which, 

 during the autumnal months, eat berries and seeds. The order Granivora, 

 which includes the familes of the Chaffinch, Fringilla, the house SparroAV, 

 FdngiUa domestica, the Linnet F. cannabina, the Bunting, Emheriza, the 

 Hawfinch, Coccothraustes vulgaris, — in all about thirty species, — have not a 

 full right to the name which their order bears, since all the buntings, all the 

 chaffinches, and all the sparrows consume during the summer as much 

 animal as vegetable matter, if not more. The only birds of an exclusively 

 phytophagous nature are the pigeon tribe, Golumhidce, including about five 

 species. 



Thus one order only, comprising but one single family, together with a 

 few sporadic families taken from other orders, forming when put together but 

 one-twelfth or one thirteenth part of our birds, constitute the total of those 

 which exclusively consume vegetable food. There is also another fact, which 

 may not be devoid of interest to the cultivator of the soil, viz. : — that the 

 Granivora, principally choose and prefer the seeds of obroxious plants, of 

 which they thus destroy immense quantities. This rapid and superficial 

 survey is suggestive of highly important considerations. It brings under our 

 notice the great and invariable harmony existing in ISTature in the distribution 

 of the earth's productions ; for when we come to consider the sort of animal 

 food that birds make use of, we cannot deny that they tend to the preserva- 

 tion of the vegetable kingdom. In efi'ect, all the Insectivora, the Zygodac- 

 tyli, the Grallatores, nearly all the Palmipedes, the species of Gallin(B and of 

 Corvi, a part of the Granivora, and even the greater number of the Raptores, 

 either feed exclusively or partially on those classes of animals, such as 

 G leoptera, Neuroptera, Hymenoptera, Rhinosimus, Crustacea, Mollusca 

 Arachnida, with slugs, worms, flies, larvae, &c., which by their extraordinary 



