232 NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



not want strength in its bill, which was inconsist- 

 ent with the slender form of the animal's neck, 

 as well as unnecessary for the kind of aliment 

 upon which it subsists ; but it wanted length to 

 reach its object.*^ 



*' Witli the instrument, as we have before hinted, we should 

 expect a particular instinctive action, and a corresponding mus- 

 cular power. As an animal with horns has a powerful neck, so 

 has the neck of the heron, which is introduced here, an extraordi- 

 nary muscular power, without which, indeed, the long and sharp 

 bill would be of little use. When the dog approaches the wound- 

 ed heron, the bird throws itself upon its back, and, retracting its 

 long neck, suddenly darts it out with a force which strikes the bill 

 deep into the dog. If you hold your hat towards the bird, the bill 



will be struck quite through it. In contending with the hawk^ 

 when the latter is spitted, it is not by the rapid descent of the 

 hawk, but by the force with which the heron drives its bill. 



The strenoth of the bill of the parrot, and that of all birds which 

 break the stones of fruit, or nuts, or hard seeds, is in another di- 

 rection : the bill is hooked, yet is diflercntly formed from that of 

 the carnivorous bird. The intention is, in the first place, that 

 the point shall play vertically, which, with the strengthening of 

 successive layers near the point, enables it to break hard mate- 

 rials ; and secondly, that by this form the nut or seed may be 

 brought nearer the joining or articulation of the jaw, which gives 



