PARTS OF ANIMALS, II. xvi. 



like them are blooded and oviparous, have their 

 nostril-passages in front of the mouth : but they have 

 nothing which except for its function can be called 

 nostrils — nothing distinctly articulated. A bird, at 

 any rate, one might say has no nose at all. The 

 reason for this is that its beak really replaces jaws. 

 And this is because of the natural structure of birds. 

 A bird is a winged biped ; hence its head and its neck 

 must be light in weight, and its breast must be 

 narrow ; and it has a beak, which (a) is made out of 

 bony material, so that it will serve as a weapon as 

 well as for the uptake of food, and (h) is narrow, owing 

 to the small size of the head. It has the passages for 

 smell in this beak, but it is impossible for it to have 

 nostrils there. 



We have spoken already about the animals that do 

 not breathe, and shown why they have no nostrils : 

 some of them smell by means of the gills, some 

 through a blow-hole ; while the insects smell through 

 the middle part of the body. All of them smell, as 

 all of them move, by means of the connate pneuma ° 

 of their bodies, which is not introduced from without, 

 but is present in all of them by nature. 



In all blooded animals that have teeth, the lips have Lipa. 

 their place below the nostrils. (As stated already, 

 birds have a bony beak for getting food and for de- 

 fence ; and this is as it were teeth and lips run into 

 one. The nature of the beak can be illustrated thus. 

 Supposing, in a human being, that the lips were 

 removed, and all the upper teeth were welded to- 



" Cf. De somno et vig. 455 b 34 fF. For a full account of 

 'Lvfi<f)irrov YLveufia see G.A. (Loeb edn.), pp. 576 ff. 



' coTTcp SUZ^ : coanep vulg'. • <Kal> Peck. 



197' 



