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 

 increasing 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- 



