ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 
THE chief illustration of a book is incontestably the formula in 
which it is summed up. Here it is, then, im few words :— 
This book has considered the bird in himself, and but little in 
relation to man. 
The bird, born in a much lower condition than man (oviparous, 
like the serpent), possesses three advantages over him, which are his 
special mission :— 
I The wing, flight, an unique power, which is the dream of man. 
Every other creature is slow. Compared with the falcon or swallow, 
the Arab horse is a snail. 
II. Flight itself does not appertain solely to the wing, but to an 
incomparable power of respiration and vision. The bird is peculiarly 
the son of air and light. 
III. An essentially electrical being, the bird sees, knows, and 
foresees earth and sky, the weather, the seasons. Whether through 
an intimate relation with the globe, whether through a prodigious 
memory of localities and routes, he is always facing eastward, and 
always knows his path. 
He swoops; he penetrates; he attains what man shall never 
attain. This is evident, particularly in his marvellous war against 
the reptile and the insect. 
