84 
CHAPTER Y. 
FLIGHT. — MUSCULAR POWER OF WINGS — PECULIARITY 
OF, IN DIFFERENT BIRDS. — ADAPTED TO VARIOUS 
HABITS.— RAPIDITY OF MOTION AND RATE OF, HOW 
CALCULATED. LONG CONTINUANCE OF FLIGHT AC- 
COUNTED FOR. MIGRATION, CAUSES OF. TENDENCY 
OF MOST BIRDS TO WANDER AT PARTICULAR TIMES. 
WHY SELDOM SEEN IN THE ACT OF MIGRATING.— IN- 
STINCTIVE POWER OF FINDING THEIR WAY. 
Haying described the light and airy frame-work 
of birds, intended to pass more or less of tbeir time 
in the air; and having shown how beautifully, in every 
particular, an all-wise Creator has fitted them for 
such a life, we are naturally led to follow them in 
their flight, and see how they are still further pre- 
pared to turn their lightness of form to the great- 
est advantage ; and, in pursuing this inquiry, the 
more shall we be constrained to acknowledge, that 
66 wondrous are the works of God, and that in 
wisdom he hath made them all, — giving unto the 
Stork in the heaven, to know her appointed time, 
and the Turtle, and the Crane, and the Swallow, to 
observe the seasons for their coming/' No human 
ingenuity or skill could ever have devised so perfect 
an instrument as a bird’s wing, for its intended pur- 
pose ; so light, and yet so powerful ; so spacious, 
when spread out, and yet so compact, and gathered 
into so small a compass when not wanted. 
We may form some idea of the extraordinary 
strength of a bird, from knowing that the great 
muscle, which chiefly regulates the movements of its 
