148 7%eWisDouof GOD Parti. 



the Air may more reiift their Defcents , they are 

 alfo hollow and light ; nay, their very Bones 

 are light : For though thofe of tjie Legs and 

 Wings are folid and firm, yet have they ample 

 Cavities, by which Means they become more 

 rigid and ftifF) it being demonftrable, that a 

 hollow Body is more ft iff and inflexible than a fo- 

 lid one of equal Subftance and Matter. Then 

 the Feathers alfo are very light, yet their Shafts 

 • hard and ftiff, as being either empty, or filled 

 with a light and fpungy Subftance, and their 

 Webs are not made of continued Membranes ; 

 for then, had a Rupture by any Accident been 

 made in them, it could not have been confoli- 

 dated, but of two Series of numerous Pumulcey 

 or contiguous Filaments, furniflied all along 

 with Hooks on each fide, whereby catching hold 

 on one another, they ftick faft together 5 fo that 

 when they are ruffled, or difcompofed, the Bird 

 with her Bill can eafily preen them, and reduce 

 them to their due Pofition again. And for their 

 firmer Cohasfion, the wife and bountiful Author 

 of Nature hath provided and placed on the Rump 

 two Glandules, having their excretory Veffels, 

 round which grow Feathers in Form of a Pen- 

 cil, to which the Bird turning her Head, cat- 

 ches hold upon them with her Bill, and a little 

 comprefling the Glandules, fqueezes out and 

 brings away therewith an oily Pap, or Liniment, 

 moft fit and proper for the Inundtion of the Fea- 

 thers, and caufing their Filaments more ftrongly 

 t,o cohere. And is not this ftrange and admira- 

 ble, 



