220 



nests when they leave them, as the swans and 

 the ducks.* 



The structure of the feathers of birds is also 

 highly interesting, arid well worthy of considera- 

 tion. If we examine one that has just begun 

 to protrude from the sheath, we find the up- 

 per, or protruded portion, perfectly formed and 

 developed ; whilst, as it passes downwards, it as- 

 sumes an appearance becoming more and more 

 slimy, until the bottom of the sheath is filled with 

 nothing but a mucilaginous substance. " Look," 

 says the amiable Drummond, "at a single feather 

 of the peacock ; consider its shining metallic 

 barbs, its superlatively beautiful eye, and all the 

 wonders it exhibits of irridescent, rich, and 

 changeable hues, according to the angle in which 

 it lies to the light ; that its form, its solidity, its 

 flexibility, its strength, its lightness, arid all its 

 wonders for, in the eye of intelligence, every 

 part of it is a wonder, had their origin in a little 

 mucilage ; and then consider whether in looking 

 on such an object, we should be content with 

 thinking no more about it, than simply that it is 

 a peacock's feather." Yet this is too much the 

 practice ; above us, and below, on the right, arid 

 on the left, in every element, in every situation, 

 the works of an Almighty Power are present, 

 and all abounding in instruction of the highest 

 kind, and yet how slight is the impression which 

 they make upon us, in comparison with that 

 which they are so well calculated to inspire ! 



* Edinburgh Journal of Natural and Geographical Science. 



