292 NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



bill of the parrot is so much hooked, and so much 

 overlaps the lower, that if, as in other birds, the 

 lower chap alone had motion, the bird could scarce- 

 ly gape wide enough to receive its food : yet this 

 hook and overlapping of the bill could not be 

 spared, for it forms the very instrument by which 

 the bird climbs, — to say nothing of the use which 

 it makes of it in breakiug nuts and the hard sub- 

 stances upon which it feeds. How, therefore, has 

 nature provided for the opening of this occluded 

 mouth ? By making the upper chap moveable, as 

 well as the lower. In most birds, the upper chap 

 is connected, and makes but one piece, with the 

 skull ; but in the parrot the upper chap is joined 

 to the bone of the head by a strong membrane 

 placed on each side of it, which lifts and depresses 

 it at pleasure.* 



V. The sjyider^s iceh is a compensating contri- 

 vance. The spider lives upon flies, w^ithout w ings 

 to pursue them, — a case, one w^ould have thought, 

 of great difficulty, yet provided for, and provided 

 for by a resource which no stratagem, no effort of 

 the animal, could have produced, had not both its 

 external and internal structure been specifically 

 adapted to the operation.*^^ 



^•^ There are few things better suited to remove the disgust into 

 which young people are betrayed on the view of some natural ob- 

 jects, than this of the spider. They will find that the most des- 

 pised creature may become a subject of admiration, and be select- 

 ed by the naturalist to exhibit the marvellous works of the crea- 

 tion. The terras given to these insects lead us to expect interest- 



♦ Goldsmith's Nat. Hist. vol. v. p. 274. 



