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CHAPTER IV. 

 TMH FOUITRY KZKD. 



" The careful hen 



Calls all her chirping family around, 

 Fed and defended by the fearless cock ; 

 Whose breast with ardour flames, as on he walks 

 Graceful, and crows defiance." 



Our attention is now called to a subject of great importance 

 in the economy of civilized life, in presenting to view a class of 

 objects in the animal system equally curious and useful. 



From the most rapacious class of birds, we are now making 

 a transition to those which are the tamest, and which not only 

 contribute to the delicacies of the table, but furnish articles of 

 commerce, and are consequently of great advantage to human 

 society. 



It is obvious that birds of the 



GALLINACEOUS, OR POULTRY KIND, 



Exhibit a complete contrast to those which we have been 

 hitherto occupied in contemplating. 



Amidst the immensity of Nature's works, and the endless va- 

 rieties displayed in the world of life, there is not, perhaps, a 

 more evident proof of design, or a more conspicuous display of 

 infinite Wisdom, in the adaptation of means to ends, and of an- 

 imal mechanism to a specific purpose, than is exhibited in the 

 internal and external conformation of the last described class of 

 birds, and of those whom we are now about to survey. In order 

 to raise our minds to the admiration of the great Creator, whose 

 works are the index of his attributes, let us for a moment in- 

 dulge a laudable curiosity in the examination of this interesting 

 subject. 



In our general remarks on the volatile race, we have already 

 observed the wonderful coincidence between their conformation 

 and the mode of life to which they are destined. In birds of the 

 rapacious kind, we have seen that the form and strength of their 

 beaks and claws, their fierceness of disposition, and all their fe- 

 rocious propensities, evidently pointed out their destination ; and 

 in the gallinaceous, or poultry kind, we shall discover the same 

 exhibition of an all-wise design. These are without the hooked 

 bills and formidable talons of the bird of prey, and their internal 

 conformation admits of a still more curious and important dis- 

 tinction. In the rapacious kind, digestion is carried on by means 



