NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. ISI 
tioned abdomina, and their heads, too heavy for their necks to 
support, we could not but wonder when we reflected that these 
shiftless beings in a little more than a fortnight would be able to 
dash through the air almost with the inconceivable swiftness of a 
meteor ; and perhaps in their emigration, must traverse vast con- 
tinents and oceans as distant as the equator. So soon does Nature 
advance small birds to their #uxia or state of perfection ; while the 
progressive growth of men and large quadrupeds is slow and 
tedious. 
Iam, &c. 
