them, and if abridged in one pleasure, it may be doubled in those that remain.

The heads of quadrupeds are in general calculated for their manner of living. In some, it is sharp, in order to enable the animal to turn up the earth in which its food lies. In some, it is long, in order to give room for the olfactory nerves, as in dogs, which hunt by the scent. In others, it is short, as in the lion, to give the head greater strength, and fit it the better for combat.

The teeth of animals are also fitted to the nature of their food. In those which live upon flesh, they are sharp, and fitted for holding and dividing; in those which subsist on vegetable diet, they are calculated for grinding or pounding their aliment. Their legs also are equally adapted to the life they are intended to lead. The feet of some that live upon fishing are webbed, and calculated for swimming. Animals of prey have their feet armed with claws, which some can sheathe and unsheathe at will.

The stomach is generally proportioned to the quality of the food. In those that live upon flesh, it is small and glandular. On the contrary, animals that live upon vegetables have the stomach very large, and those which chew the cud, have no less than four stomachs, though in Africa, where the plants are soft and nutritious, some of this class have only two.

The number of species, in the quadruped class, which may be said to have distinct marks or charac ters, is usually stated at two hundred; though late authors have enumerated two hundred and eighty, and even some minute philosophers have subdivided them into upwards of four hundred.

The structure of birds is, in most respects, entirely dissimilar both from that of man or of quadrupeds. One obvious distinction between this class of animals and the quadruped part of creation is, that instead of hair, birds are covered with feathers, and these appear to be nourished and kept in order in a different manner from the hair of animals. Lest the feathers should spoil by exposure to the air, the bird is furnished with a gland, containing a proper quantity of oil, which it presses out with its beak, and occasionally anoints its

feathers. In water fowl, this oil is so plentiful that it even imparts a degree of rancidity to the flesh, and we see that their coat of feathers is rendered by it completely water proof.

The wings of birds are remarkably strong. The flap of a swan's wing would break a man's leg; and a similar blow from an eagle has been known to lay a man dead in an instant.

The sense of seeing in birds is remarkably acute, and though they have no external ear, but only two small orifices or ear-holes, yet they do not seem to be deficient in hearing. The scent of some species is exquisitely delicate. In decoys, where ducks are caught, the men who attend them generally keep a piece of turf lighted, on which they breathe, lest the fowl should smell them and fly away. The voice of birds is much louder in proportion to their size, than that of other animals.

The legs, the wings, the bones, and every part of the body are much lighter, firmer, and more compact in birds, than in other creatures. Their lungs are extended all over the cavity of their bodies.

Carnivorous birds, like carnivorous quadrupeds, have but one stomach, and that well calculated for digestion. Those that feed on grain have, in addition to the crop or stomach where their food is moistened or swelled, a gizzard, which is a very hard muscle, almost cartilaginous or gristly, and which they commonly fill with small stones, where the food is afterwards ground in order to complete its digestion. Birds are subject to few diseases.

Birds of the same species do not always make their nests of the same materials, though in general, there is a uniformity; the redbreast, in some parts of England,

makes his nest of oak leaves, where those leaves are plentiful; in other parts, it makes it with moss and hair. Where the eggs are numerous, it is necessary to make the nest warm; thus the wren, which is a small animal, and able to cover but a small compass, and yet lays many eggs, makes her nest remarkably warm; on the contrary, the plover, the eagle, the crow, &c. which lay but two or three, are not equally solicitous in this respect.

There are some birds which are called birds of passage, and which by migrating, make a habitation in all parts of the earth; but in general, every climate has birds peculiar to itself. In all countries, birds are much longer lived than quadrupeds. They are, however, greatly inferior to quadrupeds in sense and docility.

The rapidity with which birds move from place to place is one remarkable circumstance attending them. The hawk, and many other birds, occasionally fly at the rate of not less than one hundred and fifty miles in an hour. Even the common crow moves twentyfive miles within that space of time; the swallow ninety. two miles, and the eider duck ninety miles.

This being the case, and it being known also that many birds can subsist for a considerable time without food, there can be no reason to wonder at birds being able to accomplish their periodical migrations to and from distant climes.

The number of species in this class of animals is very numerous, amounting to above eight hundred.

FISHES.

The number of fish to which a name is given, is, according to Linnæus, above four hundred. The majo

rity of these are confined to the sea, and would expire in the fresh water, though there are a few which annually swim up the rivers to deposit their spawn.

Wonderful as it may seem, to see creatures existing in a medium so dense that men, beasts and birds must inevitably perish in it, yet experience proves that beside those species which we are in the daily habit of seeing, the very depths of the immense ocean contain myriads of animated beings, to whose very form we are almost strangers, and of whose dispositions and manners we are still more ignorant.

The structure of fish, and their adaptation to the element in which they live, are eminent proofs of divine wisdom. Most of them have the same external form, sharp at each end and swelling in the middle, by which configuration they are enabled to traverse their native element with greater ease and swiftness. From their shape, men originally took the idea of those vessels, which are intended to sail with the greatest speed.

But the progress of the swiftest sailing ship, with the advantage of a favorable wind, is far inferior to that of a fish. Ten or twelve miles an hour is no small degree of rapidity in the sailing of a ship; yet any of the larger species of fish would play around her, as if she did not move, and even advance considerably before her.

The fins of fishes are denominated from their situations. The pectoral fins are placed at a little distance behind the opening of the gills, and are large and strong; they serve as well to balance the body, as to assist the motion of the fish. The ventral fins are placed towards the lower parts of the body under the belly, and serve chiefly to raise or lower the fish in the The dorsal fins are situated on the ridge of the

water.