STUDY X. 365 



the fifliermento diftinguifli them from it, without 

 the help of lickles, with which they trace fmall 

 foffes, in every diredion, along the furface of the 

 fand, to deted by the touch what the eye could 

 not difcern. Of this I have been a witnefs oftener 

 than once, much more highly amufed at the dex- 

 terity difplayed by the fiflies, than at that of the 

 fifliermen. 



The thornback, on the contrary, which is alfo 

 a flat fifli, and a bad fwimmer, but carnivorous, is 

 marbled with white and brown, in order to be per- 

 ceived at a diftance by other fifhes ; and to pre- 

 vent their being devoured, in their turn, by their 

 enemies, which are very alert, fuch as the fea-dog, 

 or by their own companions, for they are ex- 

 tremely voracious, Nature has clad them in a 

 prickly mail, particularly on the pofterior part of 

 the body, as the tail, which is moft expofed to at- 

 tack when they fly. 



Nature has beftowed at once, in the colours of 

 innoxious animals, contrafts with the ground on 

 which they live, and confonances with that which 

 is adjacent, and has fuperadded theinftind of em- 

 ploying thefe alternately, according as good or 

 bad fortune prompts. Thefe wonderful accom- 

 modations may be remarked in moft of our fmall 

 birds, whofe flight is feeble, and of ftiort dura- 

 tion. 



