468 



BIRD. 



When, however, we take the haunts and the hnbits 

 ot each into consideration, we find that not the jer- 

 t'alcon herself, in the pride of her finest flight in the 

 free air over the bleak and bushless wild, affords ns 

 a better specimen of exquisite mechanical skill, both 

 in the design and the accomplishment, than the par- 

 rot among the tangled sprays of a tropical forest. 

 The fine wing of the falcon w r ould avail her nothing 

 iu such a place : for it is as unbending as the spirit 

 of the bird ; and one stroke of it taking effect on the 

 branches, which in the habitation of the parrots she 

 could not avoid, would fracture the wing, firm as it is, 

 or at all events throw her off her poise, and tumble 

 her to the earth, defeated, helpless, and fit only for 

 food to the snake or the vulture, if even they did 

 not scorn her as a meal. 



But the wings of the parrot are, from the looseness 

 of their articulation, proof against any such casualty ; 

 so that, though the bird move and flutter them ever 

 so much among the thick sprays, or have to use them 

 in the most awkward situations, in making way from 

 perch to perch, when the distance is too great for the 

 reach of the foot or the bill, they do not sustain the 

 slightest injury. From the flexibility of the wings of 

 these birds in the joints of their bones, the bones are 

 not only saved from danger of fracture to which more 

 firmly-jointed ones would be constantly exposed, but 

 the feathers are also less liable to be ruffled or injured 

 by striking against the twigs and branches than the 

 feathers of those stiff wings which are adapted for 

 more forward and rapid flight are by the contact of 

 the air, when they deliver their strokes from their 

 comparatively immoveable points of articulation on 

 the firmly-knit shoulders. 



All forest birds, which have to make their way 

 among twigs and leaves, and all birds generally which 

 are liable to come in contact with obstacles in the 

 stretching out or in the subsequent use of their wings, 

 have them more or less of this yielding structure, 

 according to the necessity which they have for it, so 

 that, whatever may be the difference of the place of 

 resort, or of the hazards to which any creature may 

 be exposed on account of these, the creature which is 

 native, or in its natural and accustomed element, in 

 them, is just as much at home and as safe in the one 

 as in the other. 



It is this universal perfection of adaptation which 

 renders the study of nature, the more extended and 

 liberal the scale on which it is conducted, the more 

 gratifying to the best feelings, and the more cheering 

 to the best hopes of man. When we study the 

 different parts of the world, in their climatal differ- 

 ences and in their productions, we find that they are 

 dependent upon the structure and form of the earth's 

 surface, the motions of the earth around the sun, and 

 the reciprocal actions of earth, water, and air, with 

 those of the relative positions of the sun and moon 

 upon both ; but that, in all the varieties of climate, 

 and all the differences of surface and vegetation which 

 are produced by those numerous and complicated 

 causes, the animal, to what class soever of animatec 

 nature it may belong, is so true to all the rest of the 

 system, that they must be all parts of one design 

 the workmanship of One Almighty and All-seeing 

 Architect, who required to proceed by no such expe- 

 rience of steps or induction of particulars as thai 

 which hems in the widest flights of our invention 

 and that, ere one particle of the whole system was ii 

 existence, every possible part of the complicate 



hole, and every variety of which any one is suscep- 

 ible (even those which, to our confined perception of 

 he matter, appear anomalies or imperfections) must 

 ave been far more clear and simple than is to us the 

 simplest work which we can perform, after we have 

 )erformed it the greatest possible number of times. 

 If we attend only to the single organ, we cannot but 

 admire the perfection of workmanship which it dis- 

 >lays ; but when we, to so humble an extent as our 

 imited powers enable us, endeavour to think of the 

 whole, our admiration changes to the most complete 

 astonishment, because the utmost effort of our powers 

 can no more fathom the depth of design, which is 

 apparent in whatsoever portion of nature we study, 

 than the span of our fingers can measure the exten- 

 sion of the universe. 



Sterna of the Columbadae. Though these birds are 

 not climbers, and the greater number of them seek their 

 Pood upon the ground, chiefly vegetable, though some 

 of them also eat insects, yet they retain in the sternal 

 apparatus some of the characters of the climbing 

 birds ; and there are, among the species found in 

 warm countries, some which have the colours of the 

 plumage as brilliant as any of the climbing or zygo- 

 dactylic birds. They in general perch in trees, or in 

 the holes and on the ledges of rocks ; but there are 

 some species which reside chiefly on the ground. 

 There are also some which, in their general appear- 

 ance, and partially also in the form of the sternum 

 and its apparatus, have some resemblance to the gal- 

 linaceous or poultry birds ; and of these, as is the 

 case in that order, there are some which nestle in 

 trees and some on the ground. The race are indeed 

 considerably diversified ; but still the more typical 

 ones, in many particulars of their sterna, preserve a 

 resemblance to the climbing birds. The sternum of 

 the rock-dove, which is usually considered as the 

 parent stock out of which the numerous varieties of 

 domestic pigeons have been bred, may be selected as 

 about the average. 



Rock-dove, half the lineal dimensions. 



In the development of its keel, this sternum bears 

 some resemblance to that of the parrot ; but it is 

 better formed for flight, as the keel is more advanced 

 in front, and the angle, though rounded off, is not so 

 much so as in the other. The central portion back- 

 wards is much more produced, and it is rendered stiff 

 by the continuation of the keel ; but the angles are 

 cut off, which gives the entire bone a sort of lozenge 

 form ; and the sides are weakened by the two holes 



