506 'i'HK rEATHERED TKIHES. 



A large and varied family uf the Grallatores, is called ticulojnd-idw : their general 

 forms may be thus described : the bill long, straight, compressed, and soft, with the point 

 enlarged ; the two mandibles furrowed for half their length ; the point of the upper 

 mandible longer than tho lower, the enlarged end forming a blunt hook. The nostrils 

 arc lateral, basal, slit longitudinally near the borders of the mandible, and covered by a 

 membrane. The feet moderate, slender, the naked space above the knee very small ; 

 tliree toes before entirely divided, the external and middle toe united, and a hind toe. 

 The wings moderate, the first quill rather shorter than, or of the same length as, the 

 second, which is the longest. 



" Most of this family," as Selby observes, " procure food by thrusting the bill into 

 tlie soft earth, or the mud of shores, and thence extracting their prey ; and to facilitate 

 this, an extraordinary development of nerve is distributed over and to the extreme point 

 of the bill, thus endowing them with an exquisite sense of feeling ; and in many species 

 this member is further provided with a peculiar muscle, which, by tho closing of tho 

 iqjper part of the mandibles, operates so as to expand them at the point, and enables the 

 bird, with the bill still buried in the ground, to seize its prey the moment it is aware of 

 being in contact with it." . This peculiar mode of searching for their prey, has obtained 

 for many species at least (tho snipe, woodcocks, &c.) the title of iJm/.v of Sitcfioii. 



Some of these birds voraciously devour fish, and hence the following remarks of Mudic 

 are well entitled to consideration : " Were it not that the tribes of the living Avorld 

 restrain each other, the duration of the whole would be brief — far more sg than tl^ose who 

 have not reflected on tho subject would readily imagine. It is in the mutual destructions 

 (which are in truth preservatiotis), that we can best see the wisdom and goodness of the 

 Creator, as it is in tho principles -which render these necessary to the system, that we 

 can be most impressed with (for nowhere can we undfrnfaiid) tho infinitude of his power. 

 "When the lesson arises naturally, it is always a delightful, as well as a salutary one ; and 

 nowhere is there perhaps a more striking instance than in one of those powers over which 

 the wading-bird is in part set as a check — the power of midliplication in fishes. If that 

 power could act without limitation for the space of a very few years, the produce of tlie 

 fish in any one of our rivers, nay, of any one species of them, would build the valley of 

 that river mountain height with fishes. 



" The average rate of increase in ri\cr fishes is more tlian fifteen tliousand fold to the 

 single fish, at the single siwwning; but wo shall call it^ (en tliousand: then let us 

 propose the question, ' In what time would the productive power of a single pair of 

 fishes, if it could act unrestrained, convert the matter of tho whole solar system into fish, 

 on tlie supposition that they spawned at the age of three years, and that all but the last 

 brood died in the course of tho time '^' 



The sum of the diameters of all tlie bodies in the solar system — sun, planets, and 

 satellites — is about one million of miles; and as the average of the matter which 'these 

 bodies contain is not very much heavier, bulk for bulk, than water, the cube of a million, 

 instead of the sphere inscribed in that cube, will be more than enough for expansion, in 

 order that the matter might be as light as fish. It should be the niiiii of fhi' ck/k's, which 

 is onlj' a mnal I fraction of the ctdic of the siuii ; but no matter. 



"From 150 to 200 fishes to the solid foot will be ample alli)wanci', ami lliat will 

 require for tho solid milo 



1,000,000,000,000, 



or for the whole solar system 



1, 000,000,000, 0OO,()OO,()0O,()OU,U()U,()O0, lino ; 



that is, a larger number than the whole human race could have counted ever since llie 

 creation. But let us apply the productive power of our two fishes to it. They midtiply. 



