FLESH OF GALLINiE. 105 



If this is done, each of the orders becomes well- 

 defined as well as natural ; and they do not even clash 

 or get confounded with each other on their confines, 

 as is the case with many of the other orders. The 

 structure, the action, the habits, and the general cha- 

 racter, as inferred from the whole, are all so constant 

 in each, and so different in the two, that if we know 

 one genus well, we never can be at a loss with any 

 other in the order ; neither can we, in any instance, 

 confound the two. 



The fluttering 'and apparently painful flight of the 

 gallinaceous birds may excuse a few sentences of 

 explanation, as it is one of their general and most 

 striking differences from other winged birds, and 

 as the explanatory notice of it will throw^ some 

 further light upon the structure of the organs of 

 flight. This becomes the more justifiable, because 

 the more necessary and useful, when we consider that 

 the superiority of the flesh of the gallinidae to that of 

 all other birds, as human food, if not dependent upon, 

 is at least intimately connected with their imperfect 

 power of flight. 



When we speak of the flesh of any animal as an 

 article of food, it is always the muscular part of the 

 animal which is chiefly understood. We cannot 

 exactly estimate the power of muscles upon common 

 mechanical principles, because the energy of life in 

 the animal to which they belong is always an element 

 and one which we can subject to no calculation. 

 But the quantity and texture of the muscle are also 

 elements ; and though we cannot say that the power 

 of action varies exactly in any one of them, or in 

 both jointly, yet it does increase with their increase 

 and diminish with their diminution. Now, air birds, 



