IV 
INTRODUCTION. 
scene of pleasure, rather than of vexation. Externally, we remark 
a slender oval head, broad and sail-like wings, small legs, yet strong, a 
spreading fan-like tail to render the bird more buoyant, and to assist the 
evolutory motions of its flight ; a light plumage, in short, every qualification 
contributing to celerity, by which the animal is enabled to overtake its 
prey, or escape from its pursuers. 
Though these advantages are the lot of most birds, yet many of their 
various species are defective, in some of these particulars ; birds of the Owl 
kind have large heads ; and Herons, and many water fowl. King- fishers. 
Water Ouzels, Nuthatches, Plovers, and various others, are remarkable 
for the shortness of their tails. 
Some are noticed for extraordinary length of wing, with a corres- 
ponding rapidity of motion, while others, like the Razor Bill, the Puffin, 
and the Guillemot, are formed comparatively with wings of small extent, 
and yet are swift in flight. The Ostrich, the Cassowary, the Emeu, and 
the Penguin, have merely the rudiments of these instruments of aerial pro- 
gression ; and the Bustard trusts more to the fleetness of its feet, than 
to the vigor of its wings. Although symmetry and elegance, in general, 
distinguish the feathered tribes, and swiftness is their attribute, the Dodo 
stands amongst them, as a cumbrous mass of listless inactivity, and ranks 
as the Sloth of birds. And the long legs of the Coot, the Water Rail, the 
Water Hen, and the Stilted Plover, rather impede, than increase celerity ; 
but these apparent disadvantages we find, when we have investigated their 
uses, are in truth real benefits to the possessor, and demonstrate the pro- 
priety of the provisions of nature. 
The charaeter of birds, like that of quadrupedes, is strongly affected by 
the nature of their food. The carnivorous kinds, prone to rapine and destruc- 
tion, and maintaining their existence on the deaths of weaker animals, are 
wild, ferocious, and solitary. They rarely congregate, except among the 
vulture tribes, but each is the terror, and tyrant of its neighbourhood.' 
