fattened by fish which drop from the trees like beech-mast.[14]

[11] Jennings Ornithologia, p. 199, note.
[12] Ornith. Dict. Art. Heron.
[13] J.R.
[14] Belon, Oiseaux, p. 189

At the close of the volume are a few well-digested observations, which
will leave the reader in a delightful train of reflection, impress him
with the value of the preceding pages, and enable him to close the
volume with gratitude to its author:--

"Although, in the preceding pages, we have considered birds as miners,
as ground-builders, as masons, as carpenters, as platform-builders, as
basket-makers, as weavers, as tailors, as felt-makers, as cementers,
and as dome-builders, we have not dwelt at much length upon any
fancied analogies between their arts and those of the human race. The
great distinction between man and the inferior animals is, that the
one learns almost every art progressively, by his own experience
operating with the accumulated knowledge of past generations, whilst
the others work by a fixed rule, improving very little, if any, during
the course of their own lives, and rarely deviating to-day from the
plans pursued by the same species a thousand years ago. It is true
that the swallow, which doubtless once built its nest in hollow trees,
has now accommodated itself to the progress of human society by
choosing chimneys for nestling; and it is also to be noticed, that in
the selection of materials a great many birds, as we have already
shown, accommodate themselves to their individual opportunities of
procuring substances differing in some degree from those used in other
situations by the same species. These adaptations only show that the