INTRODUCTION. 
XY 
Yi^ard by infl:in£l, aided by currents, for the accomplifhment of 
their million. The birds, alfo, in their progrefs to fulfil the 
fame high purpofe, are by thefe enticed forwards, as it were, to 
follow the feafons, and to wing their way to the pods afligned 
them in climes adapted to the fulfilling of the great, duties of 
rearing their young, and of leading them forth to purfue the un- 
alterable courfe of nature : and thus they fpend out the varied 
year in the fame ceafelefs traverfings on the globe. 
Notwithftanding the prodigious multitudes of the inhabitants 
of the ocean, which are thus deftroyed by each other, and by 
their winged enemies, yet, like a fmall toll, or like a meafure of 
fand taken from the beach, there is no vlfible diminution of 
them ; for although many divifions of the larger kinds, by keep- 
ing in the mid-fea deeps, efcape notice, and are difperfed like 
the fowl that follow to feed on them ; yet others are mixed 
with the fmaller forts, and form part of thofe vafl; fhoals which 
yearly prefent themfelves to man, filling every creek and inlet of 
the northern fiiores, particularly thofe of the Britifh Ifles ; where 
this wonderful influx appears as If offered to give employment to 
thoufands, and to fupply an inexhauftible fource of commerce ; 
but this, like other overflowing bounties of Providencej feems 
to be too little regarded : the wafle, indeed, in this inftance. Is 
fufficlent to feed half the human race. 
It is a melancholy refledtion, that, from man, downwards, to 
the fmallell living creature, all are found to prey upon and de- 
vour each other. The phllofophic mind, however, fees this 
wafte of animal life again and again repaired by frefh flores, 
ever ready to fupply the void, and the great work of genera- 
tion and defl;ru6ion perpetually going on, and to this difpen- 
fation of an all-wife Providence, fo Interefting to humanity, 
bows In awful filence. 
In returning from thefe digreffions to the fubjedt of the 
prefent enquiry, let the Imagination pidlure to itfelf countlefs 
multitudes of birds, wafted, like the clouds, around the globe, 
