73 



CHAPTER Y. 



Flight. Muscular power of Wings. Peculiarity of, in different 

 Birds. Adapted to various Habits. Rapidity of Motion and 

 Rate of, How calculated. Long continuance of Flight accounted 

 f or . Migration, causes of. Tendency of most Birds to wander 

 at particular times. Why seldom seen in the act of migrating. 

 Instinctive power of finding their way. 



HAVING described the light and airy frame- work of birds, 

 intended to pass more or less of their time in the air; 

 and having shown how beautifully, in every particular, 

 an all- wise Creator has fitted them for such a life, we 

 are naturally led to follow them in their flight, and see 

 how they are still further prepared to turn their light- 

 ness of form to the greatest advantage ; and, in pursuing 

 this inquiry, the more shall we be constrained to ac- 

 knowledge, that " wondrous are the works of God, and 

 that in wisdom he hath made them all, giving unto 

 the Stork in the heaven, to know her appointed time, 

 and the Turtle, and the Crane, and the Swallow, to 

 observe the seasons for their coming." No human in- 

 genuity or skill could ever have devised so perfect an 

 instrument as a bird's wing, for its intended purpose; so 

 light, and yet so powerful; so spacious, when spread out, 

 and yet so compact, and gathered into so small a com- 

 pass when not wanted. 



We may form some idea of the extraordinay strength 

 of a bird, from knowing that the great muscle, which 

 chiefly regulates the movements of its wing, weighs more 

 than all the other muscles of its body put together, con- 

 stituting not less than one-sixth part of the weight of the 

 whole body; whereas, those of the human body are not 

 one hundredth part as large in proportion. 



Some birds have to seek their food on the wing, con- 

 sisting of such very small insects that many hundred 

 must be swallowed for a meal, and in these we accord- 



