Why are birds considered much less favoured in respect to organs. of touch than mammalia? Because one extremity of their bodies is occupied with the bill, and the other with a sort of oar or rudder. The anterior appendices (or wings) are organs of mere locomotion; and the remaining portion of the body, or the extremities of the posterior appendices, serve to give them a firm position on their two legs. We find, however, that in these animals the toes are more articulated than in mammalia; that they are in a great degree capable of being separated from each other; and the nerves with which they are furnished considerable. It may be inferred, therefore, that the feet of birds would be tolerably perfect organs of touch, if they were not used as organs of locomotion; and that, the less they are used for the latter purpose, the more perfect is the sense of touch. Accordingly, we find that parrots take up their food with their feet, and convey it to their mouths. In birds of prey the sense is probably more acute, as their feet are little used for progression. In the gallinaceous birds, (as fowls) whose feet are constantly on the ground, and in the ostrich and cassowary, which do not fly, the epidermis (or outer skin) is thickened, and its sensibility consequently diminished. Lawrence's Notes to Blumenbach's Comparative Anatomy. Why is it erroneous to accuse birds of destroying the buds of trees in spring? Because it is not the buds, but the insects frequenting them, of which the birds are in search. Why are the banks of the Demerara so attractive to ornithologists? Because the birds there are unrivalled in beauty, the birds of Cayenne excepted. Thus, in passing up the river, ever now and then, the maam, or tinamou, sends forth one long plaintive whistle, from the depths of the forest, and then stops; whilst the yelping of the toucan, and the shrill voice of the bird called pi-pi-yo, are heard during the interval. The campanero never fails to attract the attention of the passenger ; at a distance of nearly three miles, you may hear this snow-white bird tolling every four or five minutes, like the distant convent-bell. From six to nine in the morning, the forests resound with the mingled cries and strains of the feathered race: after this they gradually die away. From eleven to three all nature is hushed, as in a midnight silence, and scarce a note is heard, save that of the campanero and pi-pi-yo ; it is then that, oppressed by the solar heat, the birds retire to the thickest shade, and wait for the refreshing cool of evening. At sundown, goatsuckers skim along the trees on the river's bank, and, with owls, lament and mourn all night long. The houtou, a solitary bird, and only found in the thickest recesses of the forest, distinctly articulates' houtou, houtou,' in a low and plaintive voice, an hour before sunrise; the maam whistles about the same hour; the hannaquoi, pataca, and maroudi, announce the sun's near approach to the eastern horizon; and the parrots and paroquets confirm his arrival there. - Abridged from Waterton's Wanderings. Why are falcons distinguished as noble and ignoble? Because the noble falcons seize their prey in the air during flight; for they never devour what has been killed or wounded by other birds; they must drink the blood of their victims warm or not at all. In all these birds the bill is very short, strong, and much hooked. The ignoble are inferior in many respects; the tooth of their bills is rounded off, and does not present an acute angle; while the wings. are proportionally short, and consequently weaker. This second grand division of rapacious birds, is seldom, if ever, used in falconry. These definitions are by a correspondent of the Magazine of Natural History, Vol. I. Another writer in that work thinks the term noble to have been applied, not to all such as take their prey in the air,- which definition would, he thinks, improperly exclude the eagles; these birds, according to Temminck and Montagu, pouncing their prey on the wing, -- but to have been used to denote such as were used in falconry only, which was formerly the sport only of princes and noble persons. Why are the gardens in and about London much more injured by insects, than those in comparatively distant parts of the country? Because, partly, of the smaller number of insectivorous birds in and about the metropolis; and their scarcity is not, as frequently alleged, owing to the smoke, the number of houses, and the want of trees and food, because it is well known that every kind of bird will live, and thrive in cages in the heart of London but to the number of bird-catchers, and, in some respect, the cats. END OF PART IV. |