LETTER XL11I. 



its great utility, and add to the number of proofs that 

 creative wisdom has made nothing without an appro- 

 priate design. 



.This bird, although totally unknown in England, 

 abounds in many countries of Asia and Africa, espe- 

 cially in Arabia and Egypt. In these countries, par- 

 ticularly the last, they are of great public benefit; 

 and numerous flocks of them are always hovering in 

 the neighbourhood of Grand Cairo, where it is not 

 permitted to destroy them. The .service \\hich they 

 render to the inhabitants, consists in devouring all 

 the carrion and filth of that great city, which, in that 

 sultry climate, would otherwise soon putrify and cor- 

 rupt the air. In all countries, indeed, which tbt-y 

 ir. ['^-nt, they are of singular service, not only in de*- 

 v '.,.i ring- all the carrion, but also in destroying an in- 

 calculable number of crocodiles, serpents, and other 

 noxious reptiles, that in hot climates are extremely 

 prolific. The inside down cf the vulture's wings is 

 also exceedingly fine, and is converted into a warm 

 and comfortable kind of fur, which is often sold in the 

 Asiatic markets. Thus, my dear Sir, you may per- 

 ceive that this bird, which is so rapacious and so in- 

 delicate, tills a station of great utility in the created 

 system. 



THE FALCON, 



so little noticed at the present day, was, among our. 

 ancestors, held iu so high estimation, that in old paint- 

 ings it is the criterion of nobility, and a person of 

 rank seldom stirred out without his hawk on his hand. 

 So lately as the reign of James I. Sir Thomas Allen- 

 sou is said to have given a thousand pounds for a cast 

 of hawks; .and such was in general their value, that 

 in the reign of Edward III. it was felony to steal a 

 hawk. To take its eggs even in a person's own 

 ground, was imprisonment for a year and a day, to- 

 gether with a line at the king's pleasure. The ex- 

 pence which attended the sport of hawking was very 

 great, and every thing relating to it was considered of 

 great importance. Among the old Welch princes, 

 the king's falconer was the fourth great officer in the 



