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towards strangers, whom they frequently attempt to push down, by running furiously upon them: and when these happen to be overthrown, they not only peck at them with their bills, but strike at them with their feet, with the utmost violence. The inner claw being exceedingly strong, Dr. Shaw says he once saw an unfortunate person who had his abdomen entirely ripped up by one of these strokes. While thus engaged the Ostriches sometimes make a fierce hissing noise, and have their throats inflated and mouths open. At other times they have a kind of cackling voice, as in some of the poultry. This they use when they have overcome or routed an adversary. During the night they often make a doleful or hideous noise, somewhat resembling the distant roaring of a Lion, or the hoarse tone of a Bear or an Ox, as if they were in great agony.

They will swallow with the utmost voracity rags, leather, wood, iron, or stone, indiscriminately. "I saw one at Oran (says Dr. Shaw) that swallowed without any seeming uneasiness or inconvenience, several leaden bullets, as they were thrown upon the floor, scorching hot from the mould."*

During the time that Mr. Adanson was at Podor, a French factory on the south bank of the river Niger, he says, that two Ostriches, which had been about two years in the factory, afforded him a sight of a very extraordinary nature. These gigantic Birds, though young, were nearly of the full size. "They were (he continues) so tame, that two little.

Shaw's Travels, p. 68, 69.

expresssive of those sentiments which are the foundation of love.

The life of Aquatic Birds is, therefore, more peaceful and less laborious than that of most other tribes. Smaller force is required in swimming than is expended in flying; and the element which they inhabit perpetually yields them subsistence: they rather light on their prey than search for it, and often a friendly wave conveys it within their reach, and they seize it without trouble or fatigue. Their dispositions also are more innocent, and their habits more pacific. Each species congregates from mutual attachment; they never attack their companions, nor destroy other Birds; and, in this great and peaceful nation the strong seldom oppress the weak.

Most of these Birds have a keen appetite, and are furnished with corresponding weapons. Many species have the inner edges of their bill serrated with sharp indentings, the better to secure their prey; almost all of them are more voracious than the Land Birds, and there are some, as the Ducks and Gulls, which devour indiscriminately carrion and entrails.

This numerous class may be divided into two great families such as swim and have palmated and webbed feet; and such as haunt the shores and have divided feet. The latter are differently shaped, their body being slender and tall; and as their feet are not webbed, they cannot dive or rest on the water; they keep near the margin, and, wading with their tall legs among the shallows, they search, by means of their long neck and bill, for their

subsistence among the smaller Fish, or in the mud; they are a sort of amphibious animals, that occupy the limits between the land and the water, and fill up the gradations in the scale of existence.

Thus the aërial inhabitants consist of three divisions, which have each their separate abode. Some are appointed by nature to reside on the land; others are destined to sail on the water; and to an intermediate tribe the confines of these two elements have been allotted.*

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THE different species of Heron are very numerous, amounting in the whole to near a hundred. They are found in various parts of the world, but chiefly in the temperate and hot climates. Several of them are migratory. They have long feet and necks, and live almost wholly on Amphibia and Fishes.

The characters of the tribe are, a long, strong, and sharp-pointed bill; linear nostrils, and pointed tongue: toes connected by a membrane as far as the first joint; and the middle claw, in some of the species, pectinated.

THE COMMON CRANE.†

This is a large Bird, measuring upwards of five feet in length. The bill is above four inches long. The plumage is, in general, ash-coloured, but the forehead is black, the sides of the head, behind the

*The Order WADERS commences with this tribe.

SYNONYMS.-Ardea Grus. Linn. Grue. Buff.--Penn. Brit. Zool. ol. ii. App. tab. 6.

eyes, and the hind part of the neck are white: on the upper part of the neck is a bare ash-coloured space of two inches, and above this the skin is bare and red, with a few scattered hairs. Some parts about the wings are blackish: from the pinion of each wing springs an elegant tuft of loose feathers, curled at the ends, which may be erected at will, but which in a quiescent state hang over and cover the tail. The legs are black.

This species is met with in great flocks in all the northern parts of Europe. We are told that they make their nests in marshes and lay two bluish eggs. They feed on reptiles of all kinds, and on some kinds of vegetables: when the corn is green they are said to make such havock as to ruin the farmers, wherever the flocks alight.

They are migratory, returning northward to breed in the spring, where they generally make choice of the places which they occupied the preceding season, and in the winter inhabiting the warmer regions of Egypt and India.*

The Cranes fly very high, and arrange themselves in the form of a triangle, the better to cleave the air. When the wind freshens, and threatens to break their ranks, they collect their force into a circle; and they adopt the same disposition when the Eagle attacks them. Their migratory voyages are chiefly performed in the night; but their loud screams betray their course. During During these noc

* Latham.

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