sometimes in the air as on a pivot, apparently without the least exertion, rarely moving the wings; his legs extended in a straight line behind, and his remarkable length and curvature, or bend of wing, distinguishes him from all other hawks. The height at which he thus elegantly glides, is various, from one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet, sometimes much higher, all the while calmly reconnoitring the face of the deep below. Suddenly he is seen to check his course, as if struck by a particular object, which he seems to survey for a few moments with such steadiness, that he appears fixed in the air, flapping his wings. This object, however, he abandons; or rather, the fish he had in his eye has disappeared, and he is again seen sailing around as before. Now his attention is again arrested, and he descends with great rapidity; but ere he reaches the surface, shoots off on another course, as if ashamed that a second victim has escaped him. He now sails at a short height above the surface, and by a zigzag descent, and without seeming to dip his feet in the water, seizes a fish, which, after carrying a short distance, he often drops, or yields to the bald eagle; and again ascends, by easy spiral circles, to the higher regions of the air, where he glides about in all the ease and majesty of his species. At once, from this sublime, aerial height, he descends like a perpendicular torrent, plunging into the sea with a loud rushing sound, and with the certainty of a rifle. In a few moments he emerges, bearing in his claws his struggling prey, which he always carries head-foremost; and, having risen a few feet above the surface, shakes himself, as a water-spaniel would do, and directs his heavy and laborious course straightway to the land." middle claw is notched like a saw, to hold its slippery prey. Its The osprey has been known to fix his talons in so powerful a fish, that he has been dragged under the water, and has thus perished in endeavouring to take his prey. Does not that serve him right, father? I scarcely know how to answer your question, Edward. God has so arranged things, that almost all creatures live on the death of others. If this were not the case, man himself would have no great variety or quantity of food. There is much good sense, as well as piety, in the remarks of the excellent naturalist Kirby, on this subject. "It may be observed," says he, "in reference to the constant scene of destruction which is seen in creation, that the sacrifice of a part maintains the health and life of the whole. The great doctrine of vicarious suffering forms an article of physical science; and we discover, standing even upon this basis, that the sufferings and death of one being may be, in the divine counsels, and consistently with what we know of the general operations of Providence, the cause and instrument of spiritual life, and final salvation of multitudes of others. Thus does the animal kingdom, in some sort, preach the Gospel of Christ."* This is a wonderful lesson, sir, from the text of * Kirby's Bridgwater Treatise, vol. ii. 62, 3. |