Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/12

R N R N sulphurous. Cotton and linen weaving forms the staple industry of Orne, 51 establishments (123,000 spindles and 12, 170 looms) being devoted to cotton, 2 establish ments (500 spindles) to wool, and 3 establishments (2400 spindles and 2800 looms) to linen. Flers manufactures ticking, table-linen, furniture satin, cotton cloth, and thread, employs 28,000 workmen, and produces to the annual value of 1,520,000. La Ferte" Mace" employs 10,000 workmen in the hand-loom manufacture of cotton. Alencon and Vimoutier are engaged in the production of linen and canvas, and have also dye-works and bleacheries. About 2000 workmen are employed at Alencon in the making of the lace which takes its name from the town. Foundries, wire-works, and one blast furnace also exist in the department, and cutlery, boilers, and articles in copper, zinc, and lead are manufactured. Tin wares, pins, and needles are produced at Laigle. Glass-works give employ ment to 600 workmen, and turn out glass to the value of more than 100,000. There are nourishing paper-mills, tanneries (the waters of the Orne giving a special quality to the leather), and glove-works. There are in all 133 establishments making use of steam (2128 horse-power). There are 848 miles of railway. The department consists of four arrondissements (Alengon, Argentan, Domfront, and Mortagne), 36 cantons, and 511 communes, forms the diocese of Sees, depends on the Caen court of appeal, and is included in the corps d amitSe of Le Mans. The com munes with more than 5000 inhabitants are Ale^on ! (17,237), Flers (12,304), La Ferte Mace (9396), Argentan (6300), and Laigle (5303). /"XTCXITHOLOGY 1 in its proper sense is the methodi- J cal study and consequent knowledge of Birds with all that relates to them; but the difficulty of assigning a limit to the commencement of such study and knowledge gives the word a very vague meaning, and practically procures its application to much that does not enter the domain of Science. This elastic application renders it impossible in the following sketch of the history of Ornithology to draw any sharp distinction between works that are emphatically ornithological and those to which that title can only be attached by courtesy; for, since Birds have always attracted far greater attention than any other group of animals with which in number or in importance they can be compared, there has grown up concerning them a literature of corre sponding magnitude and of the widest range, extending from the recondite and laborious investigations of the morphologist and anatomist to the casual observations of the sportsman or the schoolboy. The chief cause of the disproportionate amount of attention which Birds have received plainly arises from the way in which so many of them familiarly present themselves to us, or even (it may be said) force themselves upqn our notice. Trusting to the freedom from danger conferred by the power of flight, most Birds have no need to lurk hidden in dens, or to slink from place to place under shelter of the inequalities of the ground or of the vegetation which clothes it, as is the case with so many other animals of similar size. Besides this, a great number of the Birds which thus display themselves freely to our gaze are conspicuous for the beauty of their plumage ; and there are very few that are not remarkable for the grace of their form. Some j Birds again enchant us with their voice, and others i administer to our luxuries and wants, while there is scarcely a species which has not idiosyncrasies that are found to be of engaging interest the more we know of them. Moreover, it is clear that the art of the fowler is one that must have been practised from the very earliest times, and to follow that art with success no inconsiderable amount of acquaint ance with the haunts and habits of Birds is a necessity. Owing to one or another of these causes, or to the combina tion of more than -.one, it is not surprising that the obser vation of Birds has been from a very remote period a favourite pursuit among nearly all nations, and this obser vation has by degrees led to a study more or less framed on methodical principles, finally reaching the dignity of a science, and a study that has its votaries in almost all classes of the population of every civilized country. In the ages during which intelligence dawned on the world s total ignorance, and even now in those districts that have not yet emerged from the twilight of a knowledge still more imperfect than is our own at present, 2 an additional and perhaps a stronger reason for paying attention to the ways of Birds existed, or exists, in their association with the cherished beliefs handed down from generation to generation among many races of men, and not unf requently interwoven in their mythology. 3 Moreover, though Birds make a not unimportant appear ance in the earliest written records of the human race, the painter s brush has preserved their counterfeit presentment for a still longer period. What is asserted and that, so far as the writer is aware, without contradiction by Egyptologists of the highest repute to be the oldest picture in the world is a fragmentary fresco taken from a tomb at Maydoom, and happily deposited, though in a decaying condition, in the Museum at Boolak. This picture is said to date from the time of the third or fourth dynasty, some three thousand years before the Christian era. In it are depicted with a marvellous fidelity, and thorough apprecia tion of form and colouring (despite a certain conventional treatment), the figures of six Geese. Four of these figures can be unhesitatingly referred to two species (Anser albifrons and A. ruftcollis) well known at the present day ; and if the two remaining figures, belonging to a third species, were re-examined by an expert they would very possibly be capable of determination with no less certainty. 4 In later ages the representations of Birds of one sort or another in Egyptian paintings and sculptures become countless, and the bassi-rilievi of Assyrian monuments, though mostly belonging of course to a subsequent period, are not without them. No figures of Birds, however, seem yet to have been found on the incised stones, bones, or ivories of the prehistoric races of Europe. It is of course necessary to name ARISTOTLE (born B.C. 385, died B.C. 322) as the first serious author on Ornithology with whose writings we are acquainted, but even he had, 1 Ornithologia, from the Greek opi/i&-, crude form of opvis, a bird, and -oyia, allied to Aoyor, commonly Englished a discourse. The earliest known use of the word Ornithology seems to be in the third edition of Blount s Olossographia (1670), where it is noted as being the title of a late Book." See Prof. Skcat s Etymnloyical Dictionary of the English Language. 2 Of the imperfection of our present knowledge more must be said presently. 3 For instances of this among Greeks and Romans almost any dictionary or treatise of "Classical Antiquities" maybe consulted, while as regards the superstitions of barbarous nations the authorities are far too numerous to be here named. 4 The portion of the picture containing the figures of the Geese has been figured by Mr LOFTIE (Ride in E jypt, p. 209), and the present writer owes to that gentleman s kindness the opportunity of examining a copy made on the spot by an accomplished artist, as well as the information that it is No. 988 of Mariette s Catalogue. See art. MUIIAL DKCORATION, vol. xvii. p. 39, fig. 7.