314 FACULTIES OF BIRDS. 



they pounce on their unsuspecting victims ; and it 

 is doubtless the same extraordinary faculty which, if 

 it does not enable, at least powerfully assists the 

 migratory tribes to shape their course through the 

 trackless atmosphere and over imbeaconed seas. 

 When the carrier-pigeon is let loose in a strange 

 region, he darts suddenly aloft in spiral circles, in- 

 creasing the diameter at every turn, till at last, 

 having, from his airy height, descried some known 

 familiar spot in the remote distance, he shoots directly 

 forward to his home, like an arrow from a bow. 



The hearing of birds, so necessary for escape from 

 dangers as well as indicating the neighbourhood of 

 their prey, is scarcely less perfect in many species 

 than their sight ; yet the external ear, which is es- 

 sential for producing distinctness of sound as the 

 organ is formed in quadrupeds and man, would 

 obstruct their rapid progress through the air, and be 

 inconvenient in other respects. This appendage is 

 therefore withheld, but it is amply compensated by a 

 peculiarity in the internal structure a circumstance 

 which indicates the never-failing resources of the 

 Creator. This may be considered as a slight and 

 perhaps a trifling change ; but it acquires importance 

 as being one of an infinite variety of beneficent con- 

 trivances for the comfort and happiness of the dif- 

 ferent tribes of animals, wisely adapted to the pecu- 

 liarities of their condition. 



We do not know, indeed, that there is any thing 

 among the wonders of creation which strikes the 

 inquiring mind more forcibly than instances of de- 

 parture from an ordinary rule, for the obvious purpose 

 of accommodation to circumstances. In comparative 

 anatomy such accommodations incessantly occur, 

 and it is this which gives so peculiar a charm to that 

 interesting department of science. Were all animals 

 to be formed precisely on the same external model, 



