xviii INTRODUCTION. 
stances partake in a degree of the nature and disposition of 
herbivorous quadrupeds. In both, the food and the provision 
for its digestion are very similar. Alike distinguished for 
sedentary habits and gentleness of manners, their lives are 
harmlessly and usefully passed in collecting seeds and fruits, 
and ridding the earth of noxious and destructive insects ; they 
live wholly on the defensive with all the feathered race, and 
are content to rear and defend their offspring from the attacks 
of their enemies. It is from this tractable and gentle race, as 
well as from the amphibious or aquatic tribes, that man has 
long succeeded in obtaining useful and domestic species, 
which, from their prolificacy and hardihood, afford a vast 
supply of wholesome and nutritious food. Of these, the Hen, 
originally from India ; the Goose, Duck, and Pigeon of 
Europe ; the Turkey of America ; and the Pintado, or Guinea- 
hen of Africa, are the principal ; to which may also be ad- 
ded, as less useful, or more recently naturalized, the Peacock 
of India, the Pheasant of the same country, the Chinese 
and Canada Goose, the Muscovy Duck, and the European 
Swan. 
Carnivorous birds by many striking traits evince the destiny 
for which they have been created; they are provided with 
wings of great length, supported by powerful muscles, which 
enable them to fly with energy and soar with ease at the 
loftiest elevations. They are armed with strong hooked bills 
and with the sharp and formidable claws of the tiger ; they are 
also further distinguished by their large heads, short necks, 
strong muscular thighs in aid of their retractile talons, and 
a sight so piercing as to enable them, while soaring at the 
greatest height, to perceive their prey, upon which they some- 
times descend, like an arrow, with undeviating aim. In these 
birds the stomach is smaller than in the granivorous kinds, and 
their intestines are shorter. Like beasts of prey, they are of a 
fierce and unsociable nature ; and so far from herding together 
like the inoffensive tribes, they drive even their offspring from 
the eyry, and seek habitually the shelter of desert rocks, ne- 
glected mins, or the solitude of the darkest forest, from w'hence 
