154 THE LANGUAGE OF BIRDS. 
Alas ! even his omnipotent fluxions would avail him 
little here, and he would soon abandon the task in 
despair. Yet, that some definite conception may be 
formed of this extent, let us suppose that this bird 
flies, in his usual way, at the rate of one mile in a 
minute, which, from the many experiments I have 
made, I believe to be within the truth ; and that he 
is so engaged for ten hours every day ; and, further, 
that his life is extended to ten years, (many of our 
small birds being known to live much longer, even 
in a state of domestication,) the amount of all these, 
allowing three hundred and sixty-five days to a year, 
would give us two million one hundred and ninety 
thousand miles ; upwards of eighty-seven times the 
circumference of the globe ! Yet this little winged 
seraph, if I may so speak, who, in a few days, and 
at will, can pass from the borders of the arctic regions 
to the torrid zone, is forced, when winter approaches, 
to descend to the bottoms of lakes, rivers, and mill- 
ponds, to bury itself in the mud with eels and snap- 
ping turtles, or to creep ingloriously into a cavern, 
a rat-hole, or a hollow tree, there to doze, with 
snakes, toads, and other reptiles, until the return of 
spring ! Is not this true, ye wise men of Europe 
and America, who have published so many credible 
