2 HISTORY OF 



Every order and rank of animals seems fitted 

 for its situation in life, but none more apparent- 

 ly than birds : they share, in common with the 

 stronger race of quadrupeds, the vegetable spoils 

 of the earth, are supplied with swiftness to com- 

 pensate for their want of force, and have a fa- 

 culty of ascending into the air to avoid that 

 power which they cannot oppose. 



The bird seems formed entirely for a life of 

 escape ; and every part of the anatomy of the 

 animal seems calculated for swiftness. As it is 

 designed to rise upon air, all its parts are propor- 

 tionably light, and expand a large surface without 

 solidity. 



In a comparative view with man, their forma- 

 tion seems much ruder and more imperfect ; and 

 they are in general found incapable of the do- 

 cility even of quadrupeds. Indeed, what great 

 degree of sagacity can be expected in animals 

 whose eyes are almost as large as their brain? 

 However, though they fall below quadrupeds in 

 the scale of nature, and are less imitative of hu- 

 man endowments, yet they hold the next rank, 

 and far surpass fishes and insects, both in the 

 structure of their bodies and in their sagacity. 



As in mechanics the most curious instruments 

 are generally the most complicated, so it is in 

 anatomy. The body of man presents the greatest 

 variety upon dissection ; quadrupeds, less per- 

 fectly formed, discover their defects in the sim- 

 plicity of their conformation ; the mechanism of 

 birds is still less complex; fishes are furnished 

 with fewer organs still ; while insects, more im- 



