the comparison of all the modifications of any one organ in all the 

 plants or animals in which that organ exists ; and this comparison 

 will furnish foo i for reflection and increase in knowledge for the 

 rest of one's life. One of the attractions of Botany is the immense 

 variety of structure and form that one organ exhibits in diflerent 

 plants. Take for instance the corolla. What an interesting series 

 of shapes and modifications it showo even in famihar plants, such 

 as the poppy, the buttercup, the foxglove, the dead nettle, and the 

 dandehon. Even small parts like the anthers show a wonderful 

 variety in iheir shape, their attachment to the filament of the 

 stamen, and to one another, their mode of opennig, and the 

 direction in which they open, as again in the buttercup, the rose, 

 the violet, and the dandelion. In some cases we think we can 

 understand the reasons for these differences ; in others, as yet, 

 we cannot, but the interest we can find in such matters is almost 

 endless. At this Society we once had a very interesting paper on 

 Tails. I am to-night going to investigate the other extremity, and 

 give a little attention to the beaks or bills of birds. I have on 

 previous occasions drawn your attention more especially to the 

 general anatomy of birds, and also to the structure, macroscopic and 

 microscopic, of their feathers. Now, before saying anything my- 

 self about this interesting and variable part of a bird, I will read 

 what Euskin has to say on the subject in general in " Love's 

 Meinie : " — " I do not think it is distinctly enough felt by us that the 

 fceak of a bird is not only its mouth, but its hand, or, rather, its 

 two hands. For, as its arms and hands are turned into wings, all 

 it has to depend upon, in economical and practical life, is its beak. 

 The beak, therefore, is at once its sword, its carpenter's tool box, 

 and its dressing case, partly also its musical instrument — all this 

 besides its functions of seizing and preparing the food, in which 

 functions alone it has to be a trap, carving knife and teeth, all in 

 one. It is this need of the beak's being a n^echanical tool which 

 chiefly regulates the form of a bird's face," as opposed to a four- 

 footed animal's. If the question of food were the only one, we 

 might wonder why there were not more four-footed creatures living 

 on seeds than there are, or why those that do — field mice and the 

 like — have not beaks instead of teeth But the fact is that a bird's 

 beak is by no means a perfect eating or food seizing instrument. 

 A squirrel is far more dexterous with a nut than a cockatoo, and a 

 dog manages a bone incomparably better than an eagle. But the 

 beak has to do so much more. Pruning feathers, building nests, 

 and the incessant discipline in military arts, are all to be thought 

 of as much as feeding. 



Soldiership especially is a much more imperious necessity among 

 birds than quadrupeds ; neither lions nor wolves habitually use 



