RAPACIOUS BIRDS. 
171 
mals. Most of them, having different conformations 
and inclinations, are supported by variety of diet ; by 
which means every station and place is made an abode, 
and maintains its inhabitants, for the “ Creator hath 
opened his hand, and filled all things living with plen- 
teousness.” 
As a brief note, not a disquisition, upon the subject, 
is designed, we will pass over the habits and disposi- 
tions of beasts and insects, strongly charactered as they 
are, and only instance a few of our land-birds, as af- 
fording the most familiar instances ; and we shall find 
that it is not the genera only, but the individuals which 
compose them in many instances, that are supported by 
different aliment. And first, those birds which we de- 
nominate as Rapacious, such as falcons, hawks, owls, 
live upon animal food which they capture, kill, and 
devour ; abstaining, unless stimulated by necessity, 
from creatures they may find dead. Then come the 
pies : of these, the raven and crow likewise eat animal 
food, but it is generally such as has been killed by vio- 
lence or ceased to exist, only in cases of want* killing 
for themselves. The rook, the daw, the magpie, con- 
sume worms, grubs, and are not addicted, except from 
hunger, to eating other animal matters. The two first 
feed at times in society ; the latter associates with nei- 
ther, but feeds in places remote from such as are fre- 
quented by them. The jay too eats grubs and such 
things, but seeks them out under hedges, in coverts and 
places which others of his kind abandon to him. The 
| cuckoo seems principally to live upon the eggs of birds, 
with a few insects and larvae occasionally ; the wryneck 
upon emmets, from heaps under hedges near conceal- 
ment — the woodpeckers upon insects found upon trees ; 
|l and when they seek for the emmet, they prefer the ant- 
* The crow in the spring, when food is difficult of attainment, will 
kill young pigeons ; and the magpie having young ones, captures 
the new hatches of our domestic poultry : but these are cases of ne- 
I cessity rather than habit. The raven has a decided inclination for 
the eyes of creatures, and finding lambs in a weak state, immediately 
plucks them out, and when the animal is recently dead, commences 
his depredations upon these parts. 
