NATURAL HISTORY 
OF 
BIRDS. 
THEIR ARCHITECTURE. 

CHAPTER I. 
MINING BIRDS. 
Attnoven the notion that man derived the first 
hints of mechanical contrivance from the lower an- 
imals, may at first view appear plausible, it will be 
found, when traced circumstantially, no more to ac- 
cord with the actual origin of inventions than the 
once popular fancy of tracing the origin of all hu- 
man knowledge to the Iliad of Homer, or, as the 
Turks do, to the Koran of Mohammed. Pope, who 
was essentially the poet of good sense and reason, 
doubtless believed that some arts were thus acqui- 
red, when he said, 
‘Lean of the little Nautilus to sail, 
Spread the thin oar and catch the driving gale ;” 
but the fact itself appears very questionable, inas- 
much as the various species of Nautilus (Nautilide) 
are not only of rather unfrequent occurrence even 
where they are indigenous; but, being confined to 
the locality of warm latitudes, they could not have 
afforded any hint of boat-building to many tribes, 
such as the Bes lke the New-Zealanders. We 
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