RELATION OP BIRDS TO MAN. 5

whicli in birds are doubtless more varied than in any of the other lnc;her animals. Some birds, like Penguins, are so aquatic that they are practically helj)less on land. Their vrings are too small to support them in the air, but they fly under water mth great rapidity, and might be termed feathered porjjoises. Others, like the Ostrich, are terrestrial, and can neither fly nor swim. Others still, like the Frigate Birds, are aerial. Their small feet are of use only in perching, and their home is in the air. If now we should compare specimens of Penguins, Ostriches, and Frigate-birds with each other, and ^Tith such widely different forms as Hummingbii'ds, "Wood- peckers, Parrots, and others, we would realise still more clearly the remarkable amount of variation shown by birds. This great difference in form is accompanied by a corresponding variation in habit, making possible, as before remarked, the wide distribution of birds, which, together with their size and abundance, renders them of incalculable importance to man. Their economic value, however, may be more properly spoken of under The Relation of Birds to Man. — The relation of birds to man is threefold — the scientific, the economic, and the aesthetic. IN^o animals forin more profitable subjects for the scientist than birds. The embryologist, the morphol- ogist, and the systematist, the philosophic naturalist and the psychologist, all may find in them exhaustless mate- rial for study. It is not my purpose, however, to speak here of the science of ornithology. Let us learn some- thing of the bird in its haunts before taking it to the laboratory. The living bird can not fail to attract us; the dead bird — voiceless, motionless — we will leave for future dissection. The economic value of birds to man lies in the service they render in preventing the undue increase of insects.