ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 



THE chief illustration of a book is incontestably the formula in 

 which it is summed up. Here it is, then, in few words : 



This book has considered the bird in himself, and but little in 

 relation to man. 



The bird, bom in a much lower condition than man (oviparous, 

 like the serpent), possesses three advantages over him, which are his 

 special mission : 



I. The wing, /light, an unique power, which is the dream of man. 

 Every other creature is slow. Compared with the falcon or swallow, 

 the Arab horse is a snail. 



II. Flight itself does not appertain solely to the wing, but to an 

 incomparable power of respiration and vision. The bird is peculiarly 

 the son of air and light. 



III. An essentially electrical being, the bird sees, knows, and 

 foresees earth and sky, the weather, the seasons. Whether through 

 an intimate relation with the globe, whether through a prodigious 

 memory of localities and routes, he is always facing eastward, and 

 always knows his path. 



He swoops ; he penetrates ; he attains what man shall never 

 attain. This is evident, particularly in his marvellous war against 

 the reptile and the insect. 



