SURVEYS OF NATURE. 3 



- A Feather is an admirable inftance of artful appointment : its 

 quill llrong, but not folid ; its ftem fpungy and flexible, its 

 vane or beard, fubdivided into many parts, each refembling a 

 feather; having other parts riling from them, whofe hooked ter- 

 minations keep faft hold of their neighbours ; and by a kind of in- 

 terweaving (eafily feparable if neceffary, yet able to refill: the 

 impulfes of the air) complete the unitednefs of the whole. The 

 combination feems thus : the hooked offspring from the vanes 

 unite the vanes ; the vanes of one feather lying over thofe of 

 another, unite the feathers into compaclnefs. In the fliaft of a 

 feather is the pith, which nourifhes the ftem, and its parts. 

 Feathers are generally placed according to their length and 

 flrength, fo that their duty is proportioned to their ability. 



The wing is fituated in birds according to its intent : where it 

 is little ufed, befide being fmall, it is lefs accurately placed to 

 poile the body, and to receive the whole force of its moving 

 powers, and is ufually fqitat'; where it is the inilrument of ex- 

 tenfu^e excurfion, it is longer, lefs flefhy, and very carefully 

 fitted. At the extremity, is a kind of finger-like appendage, 

 uiually called a bajlard-wing. The beards 01 wing-feathers are 

 remarkably broad on one fide, and narrow on the other: the nar- 

 row fide of one lying over the broad fide of its fellow, contributes 

 to the flrength of the whole ; by introducing its flem to the fup- 

 port of its fellow, where weakefl. 



The manner in which mofl birds rife is thus: they quit the 

 earth with a bound, in order to have room for flapping the wing; 

 then they flrike the body of air beneath the wing with its whole 

 under furface ; but, to avoid flriking the air on the upper fide 

 with equal violence, the wing is inflantly contracted; fo that the 

 creature rifes by the impulfe of this firfl blow, till it fpreads the 

 wing for a fecond. For this reafon, birds chocfe to rife againif the 

 wind, becaufe they have a greater body of air on the under than 

 on the upper fide of the wing. For thefe reafons alfo large fowls 

 do not rife eafily, becaufe they have not fuliicient room at firil 



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