18 
INTRODUCTION. 
quently both amused and surprised, in the Southern states, by the 
sagacity of the Common Blackbirds,* in starting from the ploughing 
field, with looks of alarm, at the sight of a white man, as distinct from 
and more dangerous than the black slave, whose furrow they closely 
and familiarly followed, for the insect-food it afforded them, without 
betraying any appearance of distrust. Need we any further proof 
of the capacity for change of . disposition, than that which has so 
long operated upon our domestic poultry, “ those victims,” as Buffon 
slightingly remarks, u which are multiplied without trouble, and 
sacrificed without regret.” How different the habits of our Goose 
and Duck in their wild and tame condition. Instead of that ex- 
cessive and timid cautiousness, so peculiar to their savage nature, 
they keep company with the domestic cattle, and hardly shuffle out 
of our path; nay, the Gander is a very ban-dog; noisy, gabbling, 
and vociferous, he gives notice of the stranger’s approach, is often the 
terror of the meddling school-boy, in defence of his fostered brood 
and it is reported of antiquity, that by their usual garrulity and 
watchfulness, they once saved the Roman capitol. Not only is the 
disposition of these birds changed by domestication, but even their 
strong instinct to migration, or wandering longings, are wholly 
annihilated. Instead of joining the airy phalanx which wing their 
way to distant regions, they grovel contented in the perpetual 
abundance attendant on their willing slavery. If instinct can thus 
be destroyed or merged in artificial circumstances, need we wonder 
that this protecting and innate intelligence is capable also of another 
change by improvement, adapted to new habits and unnatural re- 
straints. Even without undergoing the slavery of domestication, 
many birds become fully sensible of immunities and protection ; and 
in the same aquatic and rude family of birds, already mentioned, we 
may quote the tame habits of the Eider Ducks. In Iceland, and 
other countries, where they breed in such numbers, as to render 
their valuable down an object of commerce, they are forbidden to 
be killed under legal penalty, and, as if aware of this legislative 
security, they sit on their eggs undisturbed at the approach of man, 
and are entirely as familiar, during this season of breeding, as our 
tamed Ducks ; nor are they apparently aware ot the cheat habitually 
practised upon them of abstracting the down with which they line 
their nests, though it is usually repeated until they make the third 
attempt at incubation. If, however, the last nest, with its eggs and 
down, to the lining of which the male is now obliged to contribute, 
* Quiscalus versicolor . 
