Formation of Birds 127 



FORMATION OF BIRDS. 



IN considering the external form of a bird, the first 

 thing that strikes a philosophical inquirer is the 

 wisdom with which Providence has adapted it to 

 the element in which it is destined to move. 



In its smooth pointed bill, and gradually enlarging 

 head and neck, he perceives an instrument admirably 

 calculated to penetrate the yielding air. The rounded 

 prow-like shape of its breast, too, is adapted with mathe- 

 matical exactness to the same useful purpose ; while its 

 flexible tail is made with surprising skill to perform the 

 part of a rudder ; and its wings equally poised and fur- 

 nished with quills and feathers modelled by numerous 

 wonderful contrivances, at once for lightness, for strength, 

 and for tenacity, and altogether exhibiting a machine of 

 the most perfect kind for aerial navigation. 



The very varieties in the nature of this machinery, 

 adapted as they are to the faculties and instincts of each 

 species, impress the mind with a deep sense of the minute 

 and skilful care of a beneficent Creator, and give a 

 peculiar interest to the investigation. 



When we proceed from the external form to the con- 

 sideration of the internal structure of birds, as adapted to 

 their peculiar function of moving through the air, we 

 perceive a system of contrivances evidently intended to 

 promote the same end. In the mechanical art exhibited 

 in the formation of the bones and muscles, by which 

 power and motion is given to the wings — in the con- 

 formation of all the bones, uniting strength with lightness 

 — in the air so singularly distributed through the bones 

 and in other parts of the body — in the modification of the 

 intestines — in the whole comparative anatomy ; in short, 

 of the winged tribes, we trace, with an astonishment 

 increasing in proportion to the diligence of the research, 

 the same unceasing solicitude to adapt everything to 

 their nature. 



Nor is it less worthy of remark that there is scarcely a 

 vegetable or animal production which some species of 



