504 THE MECHANICAL FUNCTIONS. 



cock's tail, the fibrils, though large, have not the 

 construction which fits them for clasping those of 

 the contiguous lamina ; and in other instances they 

 do so very imperfectly. 



A construction so refined and artificial as the one 

 I have been describing, and so perfectly adapted to 

 the mechanical object which it is to answer, cannot 

 be contemplated without the deepest feeling of ad- 

 miration, and without the most eager curiosity to 

 gain an insight into the elaborate processes, which, 

 we cannot doubt, are employed by nature in the 

 formation of a fabric so highly finished, and dis- 

 playing such minute and curious workmanship. 

 It is only very recently that we have been admitted 

 to a close inspection of the complicated machinery, 

 which is put in action in this branch of what may 

 be called organic architecture ; and certainly none 

 is more fitted to call forth our profoundest wonder 

 at the comprehensiveness of the vast scheme of 

 divine providence, which extends its care equally 

 to the perfect construction of the minutest and ap- 

 parently most insignificant portions of the organized 

 frame, whether it be the down of a thistle, the scales 

 of a moth, or the fibrils of a feather, as well as to 

 the completion of the larger and more important 

 organs of vitality. 



Every bird, on quitting the egg, is found to be 

 covered on all parts, except the under side, with a 

 kind of down, consisting of minute filaments, col- 

 lected in tufts, and resembling in their arrange- 

 ment the fibres of a camel-hair pencil. Each tuft 

 contains about ten or twelve filaments, growing 

 from the upper ends of bulbous roots implanted in 

 the skin, and which are the rudiments of the organs 



