100 
BIRDS IN A VILLAGE. 
healthy during a long sea- voyage than a common 
seed-eating bird; but the same may be said of 
woodpeckers, cuckoos, warblers, and, in fact, of 
any species that subsists in a state of nature on a 
particular kind of animal food. Still, when we 
find that even the excessively volatile humming- 
bird, which subsists on the minutest insects and 
the nectar of flowers, and seems to require un- 
limited space for the exercise of its energies, can 
be successfully kept confined for long periods and 
conveyed to distant countries, one would imagine 
that it would be hard to set a limit to what might 
be done in this direction. We do not want hard- 
billed birds only. We require, in the first place, 
variety; and, secondly, that every species intro- 
duced, when not of a type unlike any native kind, 
as in the case of the pheasant, shall be superior 
in beauty, melody, or some other quality, to its 
British representative, or to the species which 
comes nearest to it in structure and habits. Thus, 
suppose that the introduction of a pigeon should 
be desired. We know that in all temperate regions 
these birds vary as little in colour and markings 
as they do in form ; but in the vocal powers of 
difi'erent species there is great diversity; and the 
main objects would therefore be to secure a bird 
which ^ould be an improvement in this respect 
on the native kinds. There are doves belono-ins: 
