OF BIRDS. 
Sefore we begin to treat of the different kinds of 
irds, it may not be deemed improper to make a few 
;eneral observations on this grand department of ani- 
nated being. 
It is a circumstance calculated to excite our highest 
dmiration, to observe how every order of animals is 
fitted for its peculiar situation in life, from man down to 
the meanest reptile: but none more strikingly so than 
birds. And though we may consider them as falling 
below beasts in the grade of being, in point of general 
utility, yet they will undoubtedly be allowed to hold the 
next rank; being far superior to fishes, reptiles, and in- 
sects, in the structure of their bodiek, and in compara- 
tive sagacity. 
The body of man presents the greatest variety: beasts 
less perfectly formed, show their defects in the simpli- 
city of their conformation: the mechanism of birds is 
yet less complex: fishes are furnished with fewer organs 
still; while insects, more imperfect than all, seem to fill 
up the chasm between animal and vegetable nature. Of 
man, there are but three or four species; the kinds of 
beasts are more numerous; birds are more various still; 
fishes yet more; but insects afford an immense variety. 
The form of the bird is nicely adapted to the habits 
which it is destined to assume; its head is small, for the 
more readily cleaving the air in flying: their eyes also 
are pecliarly constructed, being well defended from im 
juries by a circle of small bony plates. Also, they are 
