NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



181 



tioned abdomina, and their heads, too heavy for their necks to 

 support, we could not but wonder when we reflected that these 

 shiftless beings in a little more than a fortnight would be able to 

 dash through the air almost with the inconceivable swiftness of a 

 meteor ; and perhaps in their emigration, must traverse vast con- 

 tinents and oceans as distant as the equator. So soon does Nature 

 advance small birds to their f)\ikia or state of perfection ; while the 

 progressive growth of men and large quadrupeds is slow and 

 tedious. 



I am, &c. 





