58 British Birds ^ 



of the Falcon -kind just spoken about, while the 

 mutual resemblance of the Owl-kind bones was seen 

 to be quite as great and obvious as in the case of the 

 Hawks, the difference between the said bones of the 

 Owls and those of the Hawks would be altogether 

 strange and half startling, from its greatness and 

 suddenness. The deep keel and the strong substance 

 of the breast-bone in the Hawk has given place to a 

 shallow keel and weak walls in the Owl, while the 

 curved, strong, broad, solid merry-thought has become 

 a fork with thin, straight, weak, yielding shanks. So 

 great and plain is the difference that any sharp in- 

 telligent boy could almost directly pick out for him- 

 self all the Hawk bones, and all the Owl bones, and 

 put them in their several groups. And if he did, I 

 think he would say to himself, and perhaps to some 

 other person, as soon as he met with one likely to be 

 able to answer him, What does this difference in these 

 bones of these birds of different Families mean ? — In 

 plain words, it means difference in powers of flight. 

 Any of our school-boy readers who wanted to prise 

 his strong school-box open, because he had lost his 

 key, would not take his pen-knife for the purpose ; 

 because he would think it foolish to use so weak an 

 instrument for so strong an effort. A great strong 

 chisel would be much more likely to serve his pur- 

 pose. And so is the work of God's hand. If a long, 

 strong wing has to be moved rapidly, and even 

 vehemently, the motion, like all animal motion, must 

 be given by muscles. But the muscles must be fixed 

 to what they are intended to move, or they cannot 

 act on it ; and they must be fixed at some other point 



