NATURAL HISTORY 



OP 



BIRDS. 



THEIR ARCHITECTURE. 

 CHAPTER I. 



MINING BIRDS. 



ALTHOUGH 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, 



" Learn 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 (Nautilida) 

 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 Esquimaux or the New-Zealanders. We 

 B2 



