‘it is developed by incubation, unless the heat of the’ climate 
suffices for that purpose, as is the case with the egg of the 
Ostrich. The young Bird has a little horny point at the 
extremity of the beak, with which it splits open the shell, and 
which falls off a few days after it is hatched. 
The industry and skill exhibited by Birds in their variously 
constructed nests, and. their tenderness and care in protecting 
their eggs and young, are known to every one; it is the prin- 
cipal part of their instinct. Their rapid transitions through 
different regions of the air, and the vivid and continual action. 
of that element upon them, enable them to anticipate atmos- 
_. pheric changes, to an extent of which we can form no idea,. 
- and caused the ancients, in their superstition, to attribute to 
‘ 
them the power of prescience or divination. It is unques- 
tionably on this faculty, that depends the instinct which acts 
upon the Birds of passage, prompting them to seek the south 
on the approach of winter, and. the north on the return of 
spring. They have memory, and even imagination—for they 
dream. ‘They are easily tamed; may be taught to render 
various services, and retain the air and words of songs. 
ae a 
wi” Division of the Class of Birds into Orders. 
Of all classes of animals, that of Birds is the most 
strongly characterized, that in which the species have the 
greatest mutual resemblance, and which is separated from all 
others by the greatest interval; circumstances which, at the 
same time, render its subdivision the more difficult. 
Their distribution is founded, like that of the Mammalia, on 
the organs of manducation or the beak, and on those of pre- 
hension, that is, on the beak, and particularly on the feet. « 
‘The first that arrest our attention are the palmated feet, or 
those in which the toes are connected by membranes, which 
distinguish all Swimming Birds.. The position of these feet 
behind; the length of the sternum; the neck, often longer 
than the legs to enable it to reach below; the dense, polished 
