KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



:05 



versation then turned upon railway accidents; 

 one lady being thereby so impressed, as to 

 exclaim that the railway signal was " a scream — 

 a horrible scream." The consoling assurance of 

 another passenger, that one never hears any 

 scream incase of railway accident — "it is too 

 quick, they have no breath," — nearly brought us 

 to the London Station. Here we found the 

 usual confusion; loss of parcels, &c. Rushing 

 bravely in the throng, to make (as I thought) a 

 hopeless search after a missing parcel, I unex- 

 pectedly recovered it — but I received almost 

 immediately, a polite intimation that my pocket 

 was turned inside out ! It really was so. I had 

 ample leisure to indulge in melancholy reflection 

 on the perversity of mankind and my own loss— 

 the train having this time come in an hour sooner 

 than it was announced as " due." More than 

 this ; the conveyance that was to meet me, had 

 not, of course, arrived. This is " pleasant " on 

 a cold day ! Every one is unanimous, year by 

 year, in condemning the fearful over-crowding 

 of steamboats; also, the stoical indifference to the 

 lives and comfort of passengers remarkable on 

 some railways — yet, every succeeding year brings, 

 not improvement, but a renewal of complaint. 



I might, my dear Sir, deprecate the very 

 flattering terms in which you have made mention 

 of me — might object that the themes you have 

 suggested, are quite unequal to my powers — but 

 it is, I think, more in the spirit of "Our Journal" 

 to make my acknowledgments for the former; 

 and, trusting my inefficiency will be excused in 

 consideration of the motive, to venture in my 

 next a few observations on the all-important 

 subject you pointed out in a recent number. 



FORESTIERA. 



[Most heartily do we welcome you amongst us 

 again, kind Forestiera. Let all your waking 

 and sleeping thoughts be towards us and Our 

 Journal. We know the extent of your powers 

 far better than you know them yourself. You 

 cannot pass one single day, without making some 

 profitable observation on men and manners. 

 Write freely to us ; we will as freely give utter- 

 ance to your noble sentiments. We glory in 

 having such an ally ; and do hope, through your 

 kind assistance, to work some real permanent 

 good on society. We have already astonished 

 the world with our boldness — but our Paper is 

 yet in its infancy. If we live, we look forward 

 to still greater things.] 



THE EYES OF EIEBS. 



All birds have the power of altering the 

 form or globularity of their eyes in a much 

 greater degree than quadrupeds, Providence 

 having furnished them with this power, in 

 order that they may flatten the ball of the 

 eye to protect it from injury, while flying 

 among the leaves and branches of trees, and, 

 on the other hand, that they may project the 

 eye-ball to enable them to see seeds, flies, 

 and small insects, upon which many of them 

 subsist. For this purpose, there is a series 

 of horny scales placed on the outer coating 

 of the eye, around the spot where the light 



enters, and over these are drawn the muscles 

 or organs of motion, by moving which, the 

 bird can either press the scales closer, and 

 squeeze the eye into a more globular shape, 

 when it wishes to look at any minute object ; 

 or it can relax this pressure, and by this 

 means flatten the eye-ball when it wishes, to 

 protect it from external injury, or to look at 

 a distant object. In birds of prey, this me- 

 chanism is more obvious than in the non- 

 predacious tribes. 



Most people who have been on the sea- 

 coast have witnessed the manner in which 

 the osprcy, the soland-goose, and other sea- 

 birds, take their prey, by darting down with 

 inconceivable rapidity from a considerable 

 elevation, into the water. Now, these birds 

 must see their prey at some depth in the 

 water, from the height whence they dart ; 

 and the inference is, that their vision 

 must be exceedingly acute for this purpose. 

 An illustration of the same fact, with regard 

 to land birds, maybe derived from an amuse- 

 ment practised at Aleppo. The inhabitants, 

 when they take the evening air on the house- 

 tops, begin to make with their hand a 

 motion of scattering grain; and, in a few 

 minutes, clouds of birds, from a viewless 

 height in the air, make their appearance, 

 though not one was to be seen till the motion 

 was made. They commonly reward their 

 descent with a few handfuls of grain. The 

 skylark soars, till it becomes to our eye first 

 a speck, and then disappears; but, did it lose 

 sight of the earth, it would not so soon find 

 its way back ; did it lose sight of the field 

 where its nest is, it could not easily return. 

 Many years since, when Messrs. Sadler and 

 Beaufoy let fly from their balloon, at a con- 

 siderable height, one of their pigeons, it 

 made no use of its wings, but dropped down 

 like a stone. Was it because it could not see 

 the earth, to which it might direct its flight? 



A very striking mechanical apparatus 

 may also be remarked in the construction of 

 the eye of birds, for keeping it clean, by 

 wiping the lens and freeing it from particles 

 of dust, which might lodge on its surface. 

 The apparatus consists of an additional eye- 

 lid, composed of a very fine membrane, or 

 skin, which is constantly moved very rapidly 

 over the eyeball by two muscles, or fleshy 

 ribbons, placed in the back of the eye. One 

 of these ribbons or muscles ends in a loop, 

 the other is a string or tendon, which goes 

 through the loop, and is fixed in the corner 

 of the membrane, to pull it backwards and 

 forwards. 



We may remark, that this additional eye- 

 lid seems to be more under the command 

 of the will, than the common eyelids of 

 animals, which play incessantly during wak- 

 ing hours, and become, in a great measure, 

 involuntary. 



