FUR AND FEATHERS. 169 



but a light zephyr in our face, which fans and 

 cools us, and really assists in speeding us on. 



And it is worthy of remark how the natural 

 coverings of many animals are " fined away " at 

 their extremities, till they glide almost into the 

 thinness of the air itself. Take an entire hair of 

 any animal, more especially those that steal upon 

 their prey unawares, and you will find the point 

 so exquisitely fine that it is absolutely next to 

 nothing. Painters are aware of that property, 

 and so make their finest pencils of the hair of the 

 sable, which admits of being made into a little 

 brush that will hold a charge of colour, and yet 

 all the points of the hairs united together make 

 one point, as fine as that of the finest needle in- 

 deed far finer. The same quality may be observed, 

 in greater perfection, if possible, in the fur of the 

 bat, or the fringes of the owl's feathers ; and the 

 little feathers upon the night moths are the most 

 wonderful of any. 



Creatures that are furnished in that manner act 

 in concert with the air, as it were, while they are 

 moving through it ; and thus, though the bat be 

 the most fluttering thing that flies, and the owls 

 and the moths be generally far more clumsy than 

 the day-hawks and the butterflies, yet they make 

 their way through the air with much less noise. 

 Many plants, too, have their yielding borders ; 

 and the wind murmurs in the groves when their 

 leaves are on, and does not howl as it does among 

 the leafless sprays in the winter; and it never 

 roars on fertile plains as it does among naked 

 rocks. 



But the air is not merely the pathway of nature, 

 it is the carrier, and it is as sensitive in its own 



