OF BIRDS. 
1ST 
enliar modes, they are provided with a iGjig neck and 
bill, and with these they dig and search and want for 
nothing. The woodpecker, which does not live on 
seeds, is differently formed. His bill is very long, solid, 
and strong; his tongue is sharp, and extremely long; be- 
side which, it is armed with little points, and covered 
with glue towards the extremity. He has short legs, 
two talons before, two behind, and all very strong and 
crooked. All this equipage suits his particular manner 
of living. His food is worms or insects, that live in the 
heart of branches, or under the bark of old wood; the 
woodpecker is furnished with the requisite tools to find 
them out, and drag them from their retreats. The he- 
ron, on the contrary, feeds on frogs and small fish, which 
occupy marshy places, and shallow waters: hence, long 
legs, a long neck, a powerful bill, sharp and jagged, for 
the purpose of wading in the water, reaching to the bot- 
tom, penetrating the bogs, seizing, holding, and tearing 
his prey, would suit him best: consequently, with all 
these apparatus he is supplied. He is also supplied with 
large and powerful wings, to bear him aloft; enable him 
to make great movements in the air, and convey great 
burdens to his nest, which is frequency several leagues 
distant from the place where he fishes. And it is worthy, 
instructing, and entertaining, to observe, generally, how 
every species of the feathered tribe is formed, and adapted 
to its particular habits and necessities: from the ostrich, 
down to the humming bird. The ostrich is well adapted 
to live in, arid traverse the burning desert; the falcon, to 
seize and tear his prey; the duck, to swim oir the surface 
of, or dive in, the water; the swallow, to range the air, 
and feed on the nations of insects that people it; and, 
lastly, the humming bird, is fitted to admiration, for its 
peculiar modes of existence; which is, to range among 
the flowers, and quaff the nectar from their cups: this, 
indeed, may be contemplated, as an admirable specimen 
of creative wisdom. What a power of wing, to suspend 
itself in a fixed and immoveable position in the air; or 
dart, with a motion swifter than the eye can trace, from 
flower to flower: and its long needle-like bill, of such a 
p 
