150 NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



protruding snout, like a prong or ploughshare, has made its 

 way to the roots upon which it feeds. A. conformation so 

 happy was not the gift of chance. 



In birds, this organ assumes a new character — new both 

 in substance and in form, but in both wonderfully adapted 

 to the wants and uses of a distinct mode of existence, We 

 have no longer the fleshy Hps, the teeth of enamelled bone ; 

 but we have, in the place of these two parts, and to perform 

 the office of both, a hard substance — of the same nature 

 with that which composes the nails, claws, and hoofs of 

 quadrupeds — cut out into proper shapes, and mechanically 

 suited to the actions which are wanted. The sharp edge 

 and tempered point of the sparrow's bill picks almost every 

 kind of seed from its concealment in the plant ; and not only 

 so, but hulls the grain, breaks and shatters the coats of the 

 seed, in order to get at the kernel. The hooked beak of the 

 haw^k tribe separates the flesh from the bones of the animals 

 which it feeds upon, almost with the cleanness and precis- 

 ion of a dissector's loiife. The butcher-bird transfixes its 

 prey upon the spike of a thorn while it picks its bones. In 

 Eome birds of this class we have the cross-hiW, that is, both 

 the upper and lower bill hooked, and their tips crossing. 

 The S]poo7i-hiVL enables the goose to graze, to collect its food 

 from the bottom of pools, or to seek it amidst the soil or 

 liquid substances wdth which it is mixed. The long taper- 

 ing bill of the snipe and woodcock penetrate still deeper into 

 moist earth, which is the bed in which the food of that 

 species is lodged. This is exactly the instrument which 

 the animal wanted. It did not w^ant strength in its bill, 

 which was mconsistent with the slender form of the ani- 

 mal's neck, as well as unnecessary for the kind of aliment 

 upon which it subsists ; but it wanted length to reach its 

 object. 



But the species of bill which belongs to the birds that 

 uve by suctio7i, deserves to be described in its relation to that 

 office. They are what naturahsts call serrated or dentat«»4 



