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they are the chief check to their too great multiplication; and sometimes, as in the case of the locust-eating thrush,' they devote themselves to a particular tribe of insects, but most of the insectivorous birds will also eat grain.

Order 7.- The last Order of Birds, the Raveners, includes those that are most perfect in their form, and all are remarkable for their predatory habits. Their power of wing, and talon, and beak, distinguish them from all other birds of the air; and though some of the terrestrial birds vie with them in magnitude, and some of the aquatic ones, as we have seen, exceed them in extent of wing and untired flight, yet none can come near them in the union of all those qualities which constitute their claim to the first rank amongst the birds; and the eagle has, as it were, been consecrated king over them all, by being placed in the Holy of Holies of the Jewish temple as one of the symbols of those powers that rule under God in nature.3

This Order is usually divided into two sections, which might be denominated Sub-orders, the nocturnal birds of prey and the diurnal. The first of the birds of these sections are distinguished by their large eyes, the enormous pupil

1 Turdus gryllivorus.

3 Ezek. i. 10; x. 1.

2 See Introd, Ixxii.

of which receives so many rays of light, that they are dazzled by the glare of day; but by it are enabled to see in the night-they fly in the evening and by moonlight. Thus they are fitted best to fulfil their function, and to be very beneficial to man, in keeping within due limits animals that are often extremely detrimental to his property, and commit their ravages more or less in the night; on this account owls are often seen in barns where mice and rats abound, and are most valuable auxiliaries to the cats. The white owl' is said to destroy more of the murine race than even these last animals. Had not the provident care of the Father of the universe created these mouse-and-rat - destroying animals, the tiller of the soil would often labour in vain.

The diurnal Section of the Raveners contains all the birds of might and power. I have before mentioned the secretary bird,' created to diminish the number of serpents; so similar to some of the waders, as to have been classed with them by several ornithologists; but Cuvier says, its whole anatomical structure, as well as its beak and other external characters, vindicate its claim to be placed in the present Order.3

Another species belonging to it descends to still lower food, and like the bee-eater, devours

'Strix flammea.

3

Règne An. i. 339.

2 See above, p. 178.

4 Merops apiaster.

bees and wasps and other insects, I allude to the bee-falcon; but in general the aquiline race attack vertebrated animals, reptiles, fishes, and birds of every wing, and many quadrupeds, and the giant vultures satiate their ravenous appetites upon any carcases that their piercing sight, from the great heights to which they ascend, can discover. Humboldt says, that the Condor? soars to the height of Chimborazo, an elevation almost six times greater than that at which the clouds that overshadow our plains are suspended.3

In the book of Deuteronomy we have a very animated and beautiful allusion to the eagle, and her method of exciting her eaglets to attempt their first flight, in that sublime and highly mystic composition called Moses' Song; in which Jehovah's care of his people, and methods of instructing them how to aim at and attain heavenly objects, is compared to her proceedings upon that occasion. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: so Jehovah alone did lead him. The Hebrew lawgiver is speaking of their leaving their eyrie. Sir H. Davy had an opportunity of witnessing the proceedings of an eagle after they had left it. He thus describes them.

1 Pternis apivorus.

2 Sarcorhamphus Gryphus.

3 Zool. i. 29. See above, p. 155.

"I once saw a very interesting sight above one of the crags of Ben Nevis, as I was going on the 20th of August in the pursuit of black game. Two parent eagles were teaching their offspring, two young birds, the manoeuvres of flight. They began by rising from the top of a mountain in the eye of the sun; it was about mid-day, and bright for this climate. They at first made small circles, and the young birds imitated them; they paused on their wings, waiting till they had made their first flight, and then took a second and larger gyration, always rising towards the sun, and enlarging their circle of flight so as to make a gradually extending spiral. The young ones still slowly followed, apparently flying better as they mounted; and they continued this sublime kind of exercise, always rising, till they became mere points in the air, and the young ones were lost and afterwards their parents to our aching sight."1

What an instructive lesson to Christian parents does this history read! how powerfully does it excite them to teach their children betimes to look toward heaven and the Sun of righteousness, and to elevate their thoughts thither more and more on the wings of faith and love; themselves all the while going before them, and encouraging them by their own example.

Salmonia, 99.

475

CHAPTER XXIV.

Functions and Instincts. Mammalians.

We are now arrived at the last and highest Class of the Animal Kingdom, to which man himself belongs, and of which he forms the summit: but though he may be said to belong to it in some respects, in others he stands aloof from it, as an insulated animal, and one exalted far above it, being created rather to govern its members, than to be the associate of the highest of them.

This Class includes many animals which are of the greatest utility to man, and without which he could scarcely exist, at least not in comfort; and others again that attack him and his property; and though the fear of him, in some degree, still remains upon them, also often excite that passion in his breast. But he of all animals is the only one, that by the exercise of his reasoning powers and faculties, can arm himself with factitious weapons enabling him to cope with the superior strength, the fierceness, claws, and teeth of the tiger or the lion, and to lay them dead at his feet when in the very act of springing upon him.

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