INTRODUCTION. 
29 
to support through life; the result of these examples is, that our 
domestic fowls have lived twenty years ; Pigeons have exceeded 
that period ; Parrots have attained more than thirty years. Geese 
live probably more than half a century ; a Pelican has lived to eighty 
years ; and Swans, Ravens, and Eagles have exceeded a century : 
even Linnets, in the unnatural restraints of the cage, have survived 
for fourteen or fifteen years, and Canaries twenty-five. To account 
for this remarkable tenacity of life, nothing very satisfactory has 
been offered; though Buffon is of opinion, that the soft and porous 
nature of their bones contributes to this end, as the general ossifica- 
tion and rigidity of the system perpetually tends to abridge the 
boundaries of life. 
In a general way it may be considered as essential for the bird to 
fly, as it is for the fish to swim, or the quadruped to walk ; yet in 
all these tribes there are exceptions to the general habits. Thus 
among quadrupeds, the Bats fly ; the Seals, and other animals of 
that description, swim ; and the Beaver and Otter, with an inter- 
mediate locomotive power, swim better than they can walk. So 
also among birds, the Ostrich, Cassowary, Dodo, and some others, 
incapable of flying, are obliged to walk ; others, as the Penguins, 
Dippers, and Razor-bills, fly and swim, but never walk. Some, in 
fine, like the Birds of Paradise, Swallows, and Humming-birds, can 
neither walk nor swim, but pass their time chiefly on the wing. 
A far greater number of birds live on the water than of quadrupeds, 
for of the latter there are not more than five or six kinds furnished 
with webbed or oar-like feet ; whereas of birds with this structure 
there are above three hundred. The lightness of their feathers and 
bones, as well as the boat-like form of their bodies, contributes 
greatly to facilitate their buoyancy and progress in the water, and 
their feet serve as oars to propel them. 
Thus in whatever way we view the feathered tribes which surround 
us, we shall find much both to amuse and instruct. We hearken to 
their songs with renewed delight, as the harbingers and associates 
of the season they accompany. Their return, after a long absence, 
is hailfed with gratitude to the Author of all existence ; and the 
cheerless solitude of inanimate nature is, by their presence, attuned 
to life and harmony. Nor do they alone administer to the amuse- 
ment and luxury of life ; faithful aids as well as messengers of the 
seasons, they associate round our tenements, and defend the various 
productions of the earth, on which we so much rely for subsistence, 
from the destructive depredations of myriads of insects, which, but 
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