310 FACULTIES OF BIRDS. 



view, by a rapid glance over the road that has been 

 travelled. 



In considering the external form of a bird, the 

 first thing that strikes the philosophical inquirer is 

 the wisdom with which Providence has adapted it to 

 the element in which it is destined to move. In its 

 smooth pointed bill, and gradually enlarging head 

 and neck, he perceives an instrument admirably cal- 

 culated to penetrate the yielding air. The rounded 

 prow-like shape of its breast, too, is adapted with 

 mathematical exactness to the same useful purpose ; 

 while its flexible tail is made with surprising skill to 

 perform the part of a rudder ; and its wings equally 

 poised, and furnished with quills and feathers mo- 

 delled by numerous wonderful contrivances, at once 

 for lightness, for strength, and for tenacity, and alto- 

 gether exhibiting a machine of the most perfect kind 

 for aerial navigation. The very varieties in the na- 

 ture of this machinery, adapted as they are to the 

 faculties and instincts of each species, impress the 

 mind with a deep sense of the minute and skilful care 

 of a beneficent Creator, and give a peculiar interest 

 to the investigation. 



When we proceed from the external form to the 

 consideration of the internal structure of birds, as 

 adapted to their peculiar function of moving through 

 the air, we perceive a system of contrivances evi- 

 dently intended to promote the same end. In the 

 mechanical art exhibited in the formation of the 

 bones and muscles, by which power and motion is 

 given to the wings, in the conformation of all the 

 bones, uniting strength with lightness, in the air so 

 singularly distributed through the bones and in other 

 parts of the body, in the modification of the intes- 

 tines, in the whole comparative anatomy, in short, 

 of the winged tribes, we trace, with an astonishment 

 increasing in proportion to the diligence of the re- 



