56 STUDIES OF nature; 



feds of the adion of the Elements in which thejr' 

 live, are, on the contrary, almoft ahvays, in the 

 inverfe ratio of thefe very caufes. Thus, for ex- 

 ample, a great many fiflies are cafed in rough and 

 hard fliells, in the bofom of the waters ; and many 

 animals, the inhabitants of the rocks, are clothed 

 with foftfurs. We fhall divide animals, therefore, 

 as we did vegetables, by referring their genus to 

 the Elements, their clafTes to the Zones, and their 

 fpecies, to the different Diftrids of each Zone. 

 This arrangement, at once, puts every animal in 

 it's natural place ; but we fliall reduce it to a fixed- 

 nefs of determination, flill more precife, and more 

 interefting, by referring the fpecies of animal to 

 that of the plant which a particular Diftrid pro- 

 duces in greateft abundance. 



Nature herfelf indicates this order. She has 

 adapted to plants, the fmelling, the mouths, the 

 lips, the tongues, the jaws, the teeth, the beaks, 

 the flomach, the chylification, thefecretions which 

 cnfue, in a word, the appetite and inftind of ani- 

 mals. It cannot, indeed, be affirmed with truth, 

 that every fpecies of animal lives on one fingle fpe- 

 cies of plant ; but any perfon may convince him- 

 felf, by experiment, that each of them prefers 

 fome one to every other, when permitted to choofe. 

 This preference is particularly remarkable, at the 

 feafon when the produdion of their young engages 



attention. 



