CONCLUSION. 311 



search, the same unceasing solicitude to adapt every 

 thing to their nature. 



If again we compare the different species of birds 

 among themselves, whether as to the climate they are 

 formed to inhabit, or the localities they are destined 

 to frequent, or the food on which they are intended 

 to subsist, we still meet with obvious indications of 

 wise and beneficent design. Contrast the legs and 

 feet of the swift, which never alights on the ground, 

 but clings to the perpendicular face of walls and rocks, 

 with those of the heron, which wades in search of 

 food on the margin of the marshy pool, or compare 

 the broad-billed and web-footed duck, whose proper 

 element is the water, with the sharp talons and strong 

 hooked beak of the eagle and other birds of prey; 

 and with certainty we must infer the wide difference 

 of their habits and instincts, from the simple in- 

 spection of the instruments with which their Creator 

 has furnished them. 



In the mutual adaptations, indeed, of the structure 

 of the various races of birds to their faculties and 

 propensities, we perceive a world of wonders, calcu- 

 lated to make a lively impression on a reflecting mind, 

 and to fill it with the most interesting views of the 

 great Author of Nature. In examining the vast 

 variety of these faculties and propensities, we have 

 uniformly found that a corresponding variety exists 

 in the conformation of the species, which irresistibly 

 confirms what every department of nature unites in 

 proclaiming, that nothing is formed without an in- 

 telligent, consistent, and infinitely comprehensive 

 plan. We do not know if there be any other class of 

 animals, from the microscopic insect whose world is 

 a blade of grass, up to the quadruped that ranges the 

 woods and the forests, which in this respect teaches 

 lessons of more varied and edifying instruction. The 

 earth, the air, and the waters teem with feathered in- 



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