22 love's MEINIE. 



19. I think I show it you more accurately in the 

 robin's back than I could in any other bird ; its mode 

 of transition into more brilliant colour is, in him, 

 elementarily simple ; and although there is nothing, 

 or rather because there is nothing, in his plumage, 

 of interest like that of tropical birds, or even of our 

 own game-birds, I think it will be desirable for you 

 to learn first from the breast of the robin what a 

 feather is. Once knowing that, thoroughly, we can 

 further learn from the swallow what a wing is ; 

 from the chough what a beak is ; and from the 

 falcon what a claw is. 



I must take care, however, in neither of these last 

 two particulars, to do injustice to our little English 

 friend here ; and before we come to his feathers, 

 must ask you to look at his bill and his feet. 



20. I do not think it is distinctly enough felt by 

 us that the beak of a bird is not only its mouth, 

 but its hand, or rather its two hands. For, as its 

 arms and hands are turned into wings, all it has 

 to depend upon, in economical and practical life, 

 is its beak. The beak, therefore, is at once its 

 sword, its carpenter's tool-box, and its dressing- 

 case ; partly also its musical instrument ; all this 

 besides its function of seizing and preparing the 

 food, in which functions alone it has to be a trap, 

 carving-knife, and teeth, all in one. 



