84 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



them, thofe of the South aflume dark and dufky 

 tints, in proportion as die Sun approaches to them. 

 When he is in the Zenith, the fparrows of the 

 tropical countries have bread-plates, and the plu- 

 mage of the head, completely red. There are 

 birds in thofe regions which change their colour 

 three times every year, having, if I may ufe the 

 expreffion, one drefs for Spring, another for Sum- 

 mer, and a third for Winter, according as the Sun 

 is in the Line, in the Tropic of Cancer, or in that 

 of Capricorn *. 



* The white colour, accordingly, increafes the effect of the 

 rays of the Sun, and the black weakens it. The inhabitants of 

 Malta whiten the infide of their apartments, in order, as they 

 allege, to render the fcorpions perceptible, which are very com- 

 mon in that ifland. In doing this, if I am not miftaken, they 

 commit two errors ; the firft, in mifapprehending the colour : 

 for the fcorpions, which there are gray, would appear ftill better 

 on a dark ground ; the fécond, and one of much greater im- 

 portance, is their increafing to fuch a degree the reverberation 

 of the light, that the eye-fight is fenfibly affected by it. To this 

 caufe I principally afcribe the diforder of the eye fo frequently 

 complained of by thofe iflanders. Our trades-people wear white 

 hats, in Summer, when in the country, and complain of head- 

 achs. All thefe evils arife from neglecting to ftudy Nature. In 

 the Ifle of France they employ, for wainfcotting, the wood of 

 the country, which in time becomes entirely black; but this tint 

 is too gloomy. It feems as if Nature had forefeen, in this re- 

 fpect, the fervices which Man was to derive from the interior of 

 trees : their timber is brown in moft of thofe of hot countries, 

 and white in thofe. of the northern regions, fuch as the fir and 

 the birch. 



This 



