86 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



i'pots on the whiteft bodies, and, to the South, 

 white fpots on the darkeft bodies. She has black- 

 ened the tip of the tail of the Siberian ermine, in 

 order that thefe little animals, which are white all 

 over, as they march along the fnow, where they 

 fcarcely leave any traces of their footfteps, may 

 be enabled to diftinguiih each other, when pro- 

 ceeding in a train, in the luminous reflexes of the 

 long nights of the North. 



Perhaps, too, this blacknefs, oppofed to the 

 white, may be one of thofe decided characteriftics 

 with which fhe has marked beafts of prey ; fuch 

 as the extremity of the black fnout^ and the black 

 paws of the white- bear. The ermine is a fpecies 

 of weafel. There are, likewife, in the North, 

 foxes completely black ; but they are indemni- 

 fied, for the influence of the white colour, by the 

 warmeft and thickeft of furs ; it is the mod valu- 

 able of all thofe of the North. Befides, this fpe- 

 cies of foxes is very rare, even in thofe countries. 

 Nature has, perhaps, clothed them in black, be- 

 caufe they live in fubterraneous places, in the 

 midft of warm fands, or in the vicinity of certain 

 volcanos, or for fome other reafon, to me un- 

 known, but correfponding to their natural calls. 

 It is thus fhe has clothed in white the paillencu, 

 or bird of the Tropics, becaufe this bird, which 

 flies at a prodigious elevation above the Sea, paries 



part 



