. The bird. Birds. 318 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. upon a few specimens very audacious. It is a hundred, nay, a thou- sand to one, that so many millions of dead, once disinten'ed, will con- vict us of having eiTed, at least, through incomplete Page 113. Man had perished a hundred times.—Here we trace one of the early causes of the limited confederacy originally existing between man and the animal—a compact forgotten by our ungrateful pride, and without which, nevei-theless, the existence of man had been impossible. When the colossal birds whose remains we are constantly exhuming had prep
. The bird. Birds. 318 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. upon a few specimens very audacious. It is a hundred, nay, a thou- sand to one, that so many millions of dead, once disinten'ed, will con- vict us of having eiTed, at least, through incomplete Page 113. Man had perished a hundred times.—Here we trace one of the early causes of the limited confederacy originally existing between man and the animal—a compact forgotten by our ungrateful pride, and without which, nevei-theless, the existence of man had been impossible. When the colossal birds whose remains we are constantly exhuming had prepared for him the globe, had subjugated the crawling, climbing life which at first predominated—when man came upon the earth to confront what remained of the reptiles, to confront those new but not less formidable inhabitants of our planet, the tiger and the lion—he found on his side the bird, the dog, and the elephant. At Alexandria may be seen the last few individuals of those giant dogs which could strangle a lion. It was not through terror that these formidable animals allied themselves with man, but through natural sympathy, and their peculiar antipathy to the fehne race, the giant cat (the tiger or Hon). Without the alliance of the dog against beasts of prey, and that of the bird against serpents and crocodiles (which the bird kills in the very &gg), man had assuredly been lost. The useful friendship of the horse originated in the same cause. You may trace it in the indescribable and convulsive horror which every young horse experiences at the mere odour of the lion. He attaches, he surrenders himself to man. Had he not possessed the horse, the ox, and the camel—had he been compelled to bear on his back and shoulders the lieavy burdens. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Miche
Size: 2267px × 1102px
Photo credit: © Library Book Collection / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthormich, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, booksubjectbirds
