112 CLASS AVES, 



Fishes, which by a figure of speech may be considered in 

 some sort birds of the water, as birds might be called fishes of 

 the air, are also provided with an oily gland to anoint their 

 scales : but it is placed in front, so that the simple action of 

 swimming suffices to spread this fatty substance over their 

 scales, and thus defend them from the relaxing influence of the 

 water. Such is the admirable foresight and ineffable con- 

 trivance of the Author of Nature ! 



The constant habit of living in the air, of experiencing its 

 full influence, and of being exposed to all its variations, imparts 

 to birds a knowledge of all the meteoric changes which take 

 place in the atmosphere, of winds, of seasons, and of bad wea- 

 ther. The kite, says the prophet Jeremiah, knows his time in 

 the sky. The turtle-dove, the stork, and the swallow, know 

 the period of their returns. We find, indeed, that all animated 

 beings, not distracted by other cares, can presage the changes 

 of temperature. This is even the case with man, and especially 

 with those whose nerves, from nature or indisposition, have 

 received any peculiar sensibility. 



It is well known to sailors, that when the divers and sea-gulls 

 retire to the rocks on rapid wing, and make the shores re-echo 

 with their clamours, as if to warn their companions; when 

 water-fowl parade the strand with apparent anxiousness ; when 

 the cranes, quitting their marshes, soar above the clouds, and 

 the swallows fly in circles over the surface of the water ; the 

 prudent navigator should lower his sails, and anticipate the 

 storm. We see, again, black legions of ravens beating the air 

 with their wings, and the rooks clamouring in the fields at the 

 approach of rain. On such occasions, the heifer in the pasture 

 snuffs in the air with elevated head ; the frogs croak in the 

 marshes, the ants bring back their chrysalides to the nest ; and 

 fishes come to the surface of the water to respire. All animals 

 appear to presage the tempest ; and it is thus that shepherds 

 and labourers, constantly exposed to the atmosphere, divine 



