NATURAL THEOLOGr. 141 



has made its way to the roots upon which it feeds. 

 A conformation, so happy, was not the gift of chance. 



In birds this organ assumes a new character ; new, 

 both in substance and in form, but in both, wonder- 

 fully adapted to the wants and uses of a distinct 

 mode of existence. The sharp edge and tempered 

 point of the sparrow's bill, picks almost every kind of 

 seed from its concealment in the plant ; and not only 

 so, but hulls the grain, breaks and shatters the coats 

 of the seed, in order to get at the kernel. The hook- 

 ed beak of the hawk tribe, separates the flesh from 

 the bones of the animals which it feeds upon, almost 

 with the clearness and precision of a dissector's 

 knife. 



Every thing about the animal mouth is mechanical. 

 The teeth of lobsters, work one against another, like 

 .lie sides of a pair of shears. In many insects, the 

 mouth is converted into a pump or sucker, fitted at 

 the end, sometimes with pincers ; by which double 

 provision, viz. of the tube and the penetrating form 

 of the point, the insect first bores the necessary open- 

 ing and then extracts the juices. And, what is most 

 extraordinary of all, one sort of mouth, as the occa- 

 sion requires, shall be changed into another. The 

 caterpillar could not live without teeth ; in several 

 species, the butterfly formed from it, could not use 

 them. The old teeth therefore, are cast off, and a 

 new and totally different apparatus assumes their place 

 in the fly. Thus, through the whole animal kingdom, 

 the form of the mouth or the appendages attached to 

 it, are kindly adaptedto the necessities of the creature. 



