198 



CHAP. II. 



OF BIRDS. 



1. Some general Reparka : 6. Stomach and Bladder i 



2. Of their Motio^ i 7. Generation. 



3- Brain: 8, Of gome particular Sorts of 



4. Organs of Sensos Birdi. 



5, Lungs s 0. Reaections, 



:.No 



part of nature is destitute of inhabitants. The 

 woods, the waters, the depths of the earth, have their 

 respective tenants ; while the yielding air, and those 

 tracts where man never can ascend, are also passed 

 through by multitudes of the most beautiful beings of 

 the creation. 



Every order of animals is fitted for its situation in 

 life: but none more apparently than birds. Though 

 they fall below beasts in the scale of nature, yet they 

 hold the next rank, and far surpass fishes and in- 

 sects, both in the structure of their bodies and in their 

 sagacity. 



The body of man presents the greatest variety : beasts, 

 less perfectly formed, discover their defects in the sim 

 plicity of their conformation : the mechanism of birds 

 is yet less complex : fishes are furnished with fewer or- 

 gans still ; while insects, more imperfect than all, fill 

 up the chasm between animal and vegetable nature. 

 Of man, the m6st perfect animal, there are but three 

 or four species ; the kinds of beasts are more nume- 

 rous ; birds are more various still ; fishes yet more; 

 but insects afford an immense variety. 



