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But how does he stand a temperature of twenty or thirty be- 

 low freezing (of Fahrenheit) by the river side among ice and 

 snow, by moonlight ? Look at his body, when he is killed at his 

 fattest. How can he keep in his caloric when on famine rations ? 

 How can the egrets, and other delicate and slender-bodied birds 

 of like conformation, endure the nocturnal cold of winter even in 

 the warm countries on the Mediterranean Sea? for their body 

 plumage is throughout light and open, and, one would say, quite 

 inadequate. Our common heron is a good, if not an extreme 

 example, owing to the northerly regions in which he can pass 

 the winter. The solution lies in that ample and wonderful pro- 

 vision which we call his wings, but which is in reality wings 

 plus a most ample folding mantle, to protect the meagre cor- 

 poreal frame which it covers so completely. So far am I from 

 having been at all shaken in my confidence in creative providence 

 and design, by studying the principle and workings of evolution, 

 that my faith in the great providential system and order of all 

 things, which we call nature, is stronger than ever. 



A great pleasure and source of instruction has accrued from 

 examining all the productions of the natural world in their 

 aesthetic aspect. The plumage of the peacock would indeed 

 prove an amazing faculty for discerning true brilliancy, grace, 

 and magnificence, in the poor little brain of his modest mate, if 

 we could believe her to have helped to arrange it, by her prefer- 

 ence and approbation. But one might admire her quite as much, 

 could we attribute to her the smallest share in selecting the ex- 

 quisite garb of the little chick which is evolved from her egg, 

 even from the day when it first breathes the air. For a young- 

 peafowl chick a day, a week, a month old, or at any age, is a little 

 thing of such beauty, of such harmony and delicacy of form and 

 tints as few can justly appreciate. It is the same with even the 

 tenderest young of most gallinacious birds, of the aquatic anse- 

 rince and anatidce, of the plovers, dotterels, and sandpipers. The 

 forms, the colouring, the endless command of hues, with extreme 

 frugality and economy in their application, the vivid contrasts and 

 yet the pervading harmony. Peacocks and pheasants in adult 

 plumage seem almost thrown into oblivion by these infantine 



