COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 125 



What art, however, does for men, nature has, in many 

 instances, done for those animals which are incapable of 

 art. Their clothing, of its own accord, changes with 

 their necessities. This is particularly the case with that 

 large tribe of quadrupeds which are covered with furs. 

 Every dealer in hare-skins, and rabbit-skins, knows how 

 much the fur is thickened by the approach of winter. It 

 seems to be a part of the same constitution and the same 

 design, that wool, in hot countries, degenerates, as it 

 is called, but in truth (most happily for the animal's ease) 

 passes into hair ; whilst, on the contrary, that hair, in the 

 dogs of the polar regions, is turned into wool, or some- 

 thing very like it. To which may be referred, what natural- 

 ists have remarked, that bears, wolves, foxes, hares, which 

 do not take the water, have the fur much thicker on the 

 back than the belly : whereas in the beaver it is the thick- 

 est upon the. belly; as are the feathers in waterfowl. 

 We know the final cause of all this ; and we know no 

 other. 



The covering of birds cannot escape the most vulgar ob- 

 servation. Its lightness, its smoothness, its warmth : the 

 disposition of the feathers all inclined backward, the down 

 about their stem, the overlapping of their tips, their differ- 

 ent configuration in different parts, not to mention the va- 

 riety of their colours, constitute a vestment for the body, 

 so beautiful, and so appropriate to the life which the animal 

 is to lead, as that, I think, we should have had no concep- 

 tion of any thing equally perfect, if we had never seen it 

 or can now imagine any thing more so. Let us suppose 

 (v/hat is possible only in supposition) a person who had 

 never seen a bird, to be presented with a plucked pheasant, 

 and bid to set his wits to work, how to contrive for it a 

 covering which shall unite the qualities of warmth, levity, 

 and least resistance to the air, and the highest degree of 

 each ; giving it also as much of beauty and ornament as 

 he could afford. He is the person to behold the work of 

 the Deity, in this part of his creation, with the sentiments 

 which are due to it. 



The commendation, which the general aspect of the 

 feathered world seldom fails of exciting, will be increased 

 by further examination. It is one of those cases in which 

 the philosopher has more to admire, than the common ob- 

 server. Every feather is a mechanical wonder. If we 

 look at the quill, we find properties not easily brought 

 M 



