252 STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 
in a summer's day. Bulk, therefore, is generally 
connected with peculiarity of motion ; and both are 
highly characteristic of natural groups or types. 
(176.) The unusual developement of any par- 
ticular part of the body, unconnected with those we 
shall hereafter touch upon, comes under the general 
head of form or contour, and will be found of much 
importance in definitions. We never find, for in- 
stance, that animals, whose muzzle or face is greatly 
prolonged, are naturally grouped with such as have 
these parts short and very obtuse. Among quadru- 
peds, there are many striking instances of this law 
of nature. The muzzle of all the ant-eaters is so ex- 
cessively lengthened, that it seems pulled out, as it 
were, into the shape of a rostrum or beak, such as 
we see among the curlews: we trace this pecu- 
liarity, again, through the whole family of shrew 
mice, and in the moles, and hedgehogs; and, as 
if nature resolved that this type should not be lost 
even in the ungulated order, she preserves it 
clearly in the common pig. Among birds, we trace 
the same analogy of structure under a different 
modification. The muzzle of birds is, in fact, their 
bill; and the excessive length of this part is one of 
the chief characters of the whole order of Gradla- 
tores, or waders. Look to all the types of this order, 
seattered in the rest of the feathered creation, and 
we find there are always some which have a more 
eurved and lengthened bill than any of their com- 
panions: but the analogy does not rest here: great 
elongation of muzzle is always accompanied (for 
what reason has not yet been explained) with small 
eyes; and these are placed very far back on the 
