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no more that year, nor ever returns to the same place. 

 When the young have left the nest, they take it a third 

 time, and so have two sets of eggs, aud three parcels 

 of down from the same nest. 



The Bat seems a medium between bird and beast ; 

 but it comes nearer to the latter. They lay themselves 

 up and sleep for the winter months, in the dryest parts 

 of caves. There fixing their talons in the roof, they 

 cover their bodies with their wings, and hang perpen- 

 dicularly in great numbers, but so as not to touch each 

 other. 



Who can account for another matter of fact which 

 is particularly observed on ,the Western Islands ? The 

 Western ocean throws up on their shores great qtian. 

 titles of weather-beaten tinsber, on which hang multi- 

 tudes of little shells fastened to one another, much as 

 muscle-shells are. In every one of these shells is a 

 perfect fowl : the little bill is like that of a goose, the 

 eye marked, the head, neck, breast, win^s, tail, and 

 feet formed. The feathers are perfectly shaped, and of 

 a blackish colour, and the feet like those of other 

 water fowl : but we cannot hear of any person that 

 ever saw any of them alive. 



Now as bats are a kind of medium between beasfs 

 and birds, are not barnacles a kind of medium between 

 birds and fishes. 



I-will conclude this account of birds with one that 

 seems to unite in itsdf somewhat of every class preced- 

 ing. It is at once possessed of appetites for prey like 

 the rapacious kinds, and an attachment to water like 

 the birds of that element. It exhibits in its form the 

 beautiful plumage of the peacock, the shading* of the 

 humming bird, the bill of the crane, and the short legs 

 of the swallow. The bird 1 mean is the King Fisher : 

 it is not much larger than a swallow ; its shape is 

 ^ the legs very small^ and the bill very long ; 



