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which may possibly at no very distant period be, 
like the British bustard and capercaile, extirpated ; 
or, if preserved, domesticated. 
Birds are useful to man by diminishing the broods 
of insects ever tending to redundance. Myriads of 
sea fowls doubtless modify the excess of oceanic life. 
Plovers, rooks, starlings, and almost all passeres, are 
of great benefit to farmers and gardeners, by de- 
vouring innumerable slugs and caterpillars. 
Some, indeed, assail our pigeon-houses; attack 
and destroy young poultry; are thought to take an 
undue share of young pheasants, partridges, hares, 
and rabbits, as falcons, owls, crows, &c. Some, in- 
deed, make their descent on larger animals, as lambs 
and fawns; but these are rare in Britain: as the 
falco albicilla or erne; the white-tailed eagle, found 
in Scotland. The vultur gryphus or condor is said 
to attack and kill the larger animals, as sheep and 
cows; and are said to have carried off children 
much above the state of infancy. It is due, how- 
ever, to the vulture race, to acknowledge that some 
of them are excellently useful as scavengers. The 
ancient Egyptians held the vultur percnopterus, the 
Alpine vulture, so sacred, from its usefulness in 
clearing the ground from carrion, that it was a 
capital crime to put one of them to death. They 
held the tantalus ibis in equal or superior venera- 
tion, from its activity in destroying serpents and 
other reptiles. The stork is scarcely less regarded 
at this day in Holland for the same reason. The 
ciconia marabou or argala is similarly respected and 
