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302 FACULTIES OF BIRDS. 
adapted to their peculiar function of moving through 
the air, we perceive a system of contrivances evi- 
dently intended to promote the same end. In the 
mechanical art exhibited in the formation of the 
bones and muscles, by which power and motion is 
given to the wings; in the conformation of all the 
bones, uniting strength with lightness; in the air so 
singularly distributed through the bones and in other 
parts of the body; in the modification of the intes- 
‘tines; in the whole comparative anatomy, in short, 
-of the winged tribes, we trace, with an astonishment 
dncreasing in proportion to the diligence of the re- 
search, the same unceasing solicitude to adapt ev- 
erything to their nature. 
If again we compare the different species of birds 
among themselves, whether as to the climate they 
are formed to inhabit, or the localities they are des- 
‘tined to frequent, or the food on which they are in- 
‘tended to subsist, we still meet with obvious indica- 
tions of wise and beneficent design. Contrast the 
legs and feet of the swift, which never alights on 
the ground, but clings to the perpendicular face 
of walls and rocks, with those of the heron, which 
wades in search of food on the margin of the marshy 
pool, or compare the broad-billed and web-footed 
duck, whose proper element is the water, with the 
sharp talons and strong hooked beak of the eagle 
and other birds of prey ; and with certainty we must 
infer the wide difference of their habits and instincts, 
from the simple inspection of the instruments with 
which their Creator has furnished them. 
In the mutual adaptations, indeed, of the struc- 
ture of the various races of birds to their faculties 
and propensities, we perceive a world of wonders, 
‘calculated to make a lively impression on a reflect- 
ing mind, and to fill it with the most interesting 
views of the great Author of Nature. In examining 
‘the vast variety of these faculties and propensities, 
we have uniformly found that a corresponding va- 
