352 
BIRDS. 
time in a very graceful manner. Another subject 
of admiration is this : we find that each individual 
has the same number of wings, and yet we observe 
they differ materially in their flight. Some launch 
away in repeated springs, and advance by succes- 
sive boundings ; others seem to glide through the 
air, or cleave it with an equal and uniform progress. 
The former merely skim over the earth, while the 
latter are capable of soaring up to the clouds. Some, 
again, know how to diversify their flight, to ascend 
in a right, oblique, or circular line, to suspend 
themselves, and continue motionless in so light an 
element as the air ; and afterwards precipitate them- 
selves in an instant like a descending stone. In a 
word, they transport themselves without opposition 
or hazard, wherever their necessities or pleasures 
invite them. When we consider them in their ha- 
bitations, they are still equally surprising ; and we 
are so pleased with the structure of their nests, 
the solicitude with which they attend their eggs, 
the mechanism of the egg itself, and the birth and 
education of the young, that we shall pass them 
through all these stages, before we proceed to their 
specification. 
The perfect similitude that appears in all the 
nests of birds of the same species ; the difference 
between the nest of one species and that of an- 
other ; and the industry, neatness, and precau- 
tions which reign through the whole, are matters 
that well deserve our attention. “ In my aviary,” 
says the engaging author of the Spectacle de la 
