198 The Bird 



this is the sympathetic or reflex system. It is a very 

 wonderful thing, this not having to think about the heart 

 beating or the lungs expanding. 



We can understand how a muscle (such as the heart) 

 can pump the blood through the body, but we know little 

 or nothing of the action of nerves. An eagle soars high 

 above the clouds; a rabbit is discovered crouching in 

 a field far below; the eye of the eagle telegraphs this 

 discovery to the brain; a message is sent along the spinal 

 cord, switches off to the wings, repeats to the muscles, 

 which half close and set the great pinions firmly; the 

 eye is the pilot, never leaving the mark; a triple message 

 now goes out, to the wings to hold back, to the legs to 

 reach forward, to the talons to open and clutch! All 

 is done without a break or hesitation, so quickly that 

 one's eye can hardly register the act, and all by means 

 of impulses sent through the finest of white, hair chan- 

 nels, consisting of a substance so unstable that it tears 

 and falls apart, like wet tissue-paper, when we examine 

 it. And if the sending and receiving of impulses seems 

 wonderful to us, what can we say of the brain, the master 

 of all, where instinct, mind, soul, no matter what we 

 call it, directs the whole life? It is here that fact upon 

 fact, experience upon experience, is stored from the mo- 

 ment the bird breaks its shell throughout its whole life- 

 time, and it is from the brain that the benefit derived 

 from this perception of experience, failures and successes, 

 causes and effects, is intelligently brought into play and 

 made to redound to the bettering of the subsequent 

 life. 



