OP THE ANIMAL FRAME. J 27 



circumstances, to possess a considerable degree of influence ; for it is a 

 curious fact, that the hair of the goat and rabbit tribes, and the wool of 

 the sheep tribe, are equally converted into silk by a residence of these 

 animals in that district of Asia Minor which is called Angora, though we 

 do not know that a similar change is produced by a residence in any other 

 region ; while, on the contrary, the wool of sheep is transformed into hair 

 on the coast of Guinea. 



The fine glossy silk of the Angora goat is well known in this country, 

 as being often employed for muifs and other articles of dress. How far 

 these animals might be made to perpetuate this pecuhar habit by a re- 

 moval from Angora to other countries has never yet been tried. Upon 

 the whole, the soil and climate of New Holland offer the fairest prospect of 

 success to such an attempt ; and under this impression I have for some 

 time been engaged in an endeavour to export a few of each genus of these 

 animals from Angora to Port Jackson. 



Silk, however, is chiefly secreted by insects, as some species of spider-, 

 whose threads, like the hair of the Angora goat, assume a silky gloss and 

 lubricity, and the phalaena won, or silk-worm, which yields it in great abun- 

 dance. Yet there are a few shell-fishes which generate the same, and es- 

 pecially the genus pinna, or nacre, in all its species ; whence Reaumur 

 calls this kind the sea silk-worm, ft is produced in the form of an orna- 

 mental byssus or beard ; the animal is found gregariously in the Mediterra- 

 nean and Indian seas ; and the weavers of Palermo manufacture its soft 

 threads into glossy stuffs or other silky textures. And I may here observe, 

 that there are various trees that possess a like material in the fibres of their 

 bark, as the morus papyrifera^ and several other species of the mulberry ; 

 in consequence of which it has been doubted by some naturalists whether 

 the silk-worm actually generates its cocoon, or merely eliminates it from 

 the supply received as its food ; but as the silk-worm forms it from what- 

 ever plants it feeds on, it is obviously an original secretion. 



From the integument of the skin originates also that beautiful plltmage 

 which peculiarly characterizes the class of birds, and the colours of which 

 are probably a result of the same deiicate pigment that produces, as we 

 have already remarked, the varying colours of the skin itself ; though, from 

 the minuteness with which it is employed, the hand of chemistry has not 

 been able to separate it from the exquisitely fine membrane in which it is 

 involved. But it is impossible to follow up this ornamental attire through 

 all its wonderful features of graceful curve and irridescent colouring, — of 

 downy delicacy and majestic strength, — from the tiny rainbow that plays 

 on the neck of the humming-bird, to the beds of azure, emerald, and hya- 

 cinth, that tesselate the wings of the parrot tribe, or the ever-shifting eyes 

 that dazzle in the tail of the peacock ; — from the splendour and taper ele- 

 gance of the feathers of the bird of paradise, to the giant quills of the crest- 

 ed eagle or the condur — that crested eagle, which in size is as large as a 

 sheep, and is said to be able to cleave a man's skull at a stroke ; and that 

 condur which, extending its enormous wings to a range of sixteen feet in 

 length, has been known to fly off" with children of ten or twelve years of age. 



Why have not these monsters of tije sky been appropriated to the use 

 of man ? How comes it that he who has subdued the ocean and cultivated 

 the earth ; who has harnessed elephants, and even lions, to his 6hariot 

 wheels ; should never have availed himself of the wings of the eagle, the 

 vulture, or the frigate pelecan ? That, having conquered the difficulty of 

 ascending into the atmosphere, and ascertained the possibility of travelling 



