The number of species in this order of animals is very numerous, amounting to above eight hundred. As some degree of classification appears necessary, they have therefore been arranged into eight orders. The 1st is the Struthious, or Ostrich order, or those which never rise from the earth. This includes the Ostrich, the Cassowary, the Dodo, the Solitary, and the Nazarene. The 2d is the Rapacious order. This includes the Eagle, the Condor, the Vulture, the Falcon, the Shrike, or Butcher-Bird, and the Owl. The 3d is the Gallinaceous, or Poultry order, which is without both the talons and the hooked bill of the rapacious kind. This includes the Bustard, the Cock, the Turkey, the Pintada, or Guinea-Hen, the Grous, the Peacock, the Pheasant, the Curassow, the Partridge, and the Quail. The 4th is what some authors have termed the Columbine order. This includes the Dove, or Pigeon, with its varieties. The 5th is the order of Pies. This includes the Crow, the Roller, the King-Fisher, the Cuckoo, the Wood-Pecker, the Oriole, the Nuthatch, the Bee-Eater, the Wryneck, the Creeper, the Hornbill, the Parrot, the Ani, the Wattle Bird, the Grackel, the Bird of Paradise, the Beef-Eater, the Curucui, the Barbets, the Jacamer, the Tody, and the Humming Bird. The 6th is the Passerine, or Sparrow kind. This includes the Starling, the Thrush, the Chatterers, the Grosbeaks, the Bunting, the Finch, the Fly-Catchers, the Lark, the Wagtail, the Warblers,[151] the Titmouse, the Swallow, the Goatsucker, the Coly, the Tanager, and the Manakins. The 7th is the Cloven-footed Water-Fowl, including those with pinnated feet. This includes the Heron, the Ibis, the Curlow, the Snipe, the Sandpiper, the Plover, the Oyster-Catcher, the Pratincole, the Rail, the Gallinule, the Boatbill, the Umbre, the Jacana, the Sheathbill; and with pinnated, or finned feet, the Phalarope, the Coot, and the Grebe. And the 8th is the Web-footed Water-Fowl. This includes the Avoset, the Courier, the Flamingo, the Auk, the Guillemot, the Diver, the Tern, the Petrels, the Gull, the Mersanger, the Duck, the Pelican, the Albatross, the Skimmer, the Penguin, the Tropic Bird, and the Darter. These eight orders take in the several species belonging to each, some of which are very numerous; the Duck genus alone embraces one hundred species, differing much both in size and plumage. Thus we see in birds also, that God has shown his wisdom and his power, in the gradation from the vast Ostrich, and Cassowary, to the Humming-Bird, which, in size is not much larger than the Bee.
“The ourissia, bee-like in its size,
Humming from flower to flower delighted flies,
And in a wondrous living rainbow drest,
Shifts all its colors on its wings and breast.”
Of all animated beings, this little bird is the most elegant in form, and superb in colors. The emerald, the ruby, and the topaz, sparkle in its plumage, which is never soiled by the dust of the ground. In Mr. Bullock’s Museum, Piccadilly, there is a case containing more than one hundred Humming-birds; and in the “Companion” to this delightfull repository of natural history, an interesting account is given of this little creature, that flutters from flower to flower, breathes their freshness, wantons on the wings of the cooling zephyrs, sips the nectar of a thousand sweets, and resides in climes where reigns the beauty of eternal spring.
The legs, the wings, the bones, even all parts of their bodies, are much lighter, firmer, and more compact in birds than in other animals. Their lungs are extended over all the cavities of their bodies. Carniverous birds, like carniverous quadrupeds, have but one stomach, where their food is moistened or swelled; a gizzard, which is a very hard muscle, almost cartilaginous, and which they commonly fill with small stones, where the food is afterwards ground, in order to facilitate its complete digestion. In birds there is no ruminating: but in such as are not carniverous, the food is immediately swallowed into the crop, or anti-stomach (which is observed in many, especially piscivorous birds,) where it is moistened by some proper juice, and then transferred to the gizzard, by the working of whose muscles, assisted by small pebbles, swallowed for that purpose, it is ground small, and so transmitted to the intestines.
Birds we find supplied with a corney substance, instead of teeth and lips. Their bills are cut into various shapes, adapted to their different habits. The sharp edge and tempered point of the Sparrow’s beak, enables it to pick every seed from its concealment; breaking the grain to obtain the kernel. The hooked beak of the Hawk separates, like a dissector’s knife, the flesh from the bones of the animals on which it preys. The spoon-bill of the Goose enables her to graze, and collect food from the bottoms of the pools. Birds of the Crane kind, which seek their food among the waters, having no web-feet, are supplied with long legs for wading, or long bills for groping, and usually both: these are admirably adapted to the shallow pools of water, or sides of rivers, which they frequent. But in birds living by suction, they are serrated, or tooth-like; these do not serve the purpose of teeth, but act as a sieve, or strainer, separating nicely from mud some nutriment conducive to the preservation of life.
The sense of seeing in birds is remarkably acute; and though their want of external ears is supplied by only two small orifices or ear-holes, yet they do not appear deficient in hearing. The scent of some species is exquisitely delicate. Men who attend decoys where ducks are caught, generally keep a piece of turf lighted, on which they breathe, lest the fowls should smell them and fly away. The voice of birds is much louder in proportion to their size, than that of other animals; for in fact, the bellowing of an Ox is not heard at a much greater distance than the scream of a Peacock.
The covering of birds is perhaps one of the most beautiful. Their feathers are light, smooth, and warm, inclining backward, downy at the stem, overlapping at their tips, beautifully variegated, and forming a raiment, varying in circumstances, so as always to suit the habits of the bird. The construction of a single feather is “a mechanical wonder.” We see at the stem, a tough, light, pliant, and elastic material, only found in feathers; also the pith, which feeds the feathers, a substance peculiar to that purpose; likewise the beard, which grows on each side of the stem, and is stripped off when making pens, the separate threads of which are called filaments, or rays. These appear stronger when pressed perpendicularly to their plane, than when rubbed either up or down in the line of the stem; and this arises from the laminæ, of which these beards are composed, being flat, and placed with their flat sides towards each other. Hence, though they are easily made to approximate each other, yet they require more force in a contrary direction, having to encounter the impulse of the air, which requires more strength. We find also, that these threads, in their natural state, unite; and cannot, be parted without force, although not joined by any glutinous adhesion, but by a mechanical contrivance. And, if separated by force or accident, when brought together they immediately reclasp, resuming their former smoothness. These threads are interlaced with each other, by means of a vast number of fibres, or teeth, which they protrude on each side; fifty of these have been counted in 1-20th of an inch: they are curved after a different manner from the filaments on which they grow. Those which proceed from the side toward the beginning of the quill-end, are shorter, firmer, and turn upward. Those on the side toward the extremity of the feather, are longer, more flexible, and bent downward. They therefore act thus; when the two laminæ are pressed together, so that the long fibres are forced far enough over the short ones, their crooked parts fall into the cavity made by the crooked parts of the others, just as a latch enters the cavity of a catch on the door post. All this beautiful structure may be seen by the microscope. In the Ostrich, whose feathers, or other filaments, hang loose like down, this mechanism is wanting. But as this bird does not fly, and requires assistance only in running, perhaps this formation is best adapted for that purpose. Small birds, which do not migrate in the winter season, have the inner side of their feathers black, because this is the warmest color: hence the heat of the bird is prevented from escaping.