32 THE CANARY-BIRD. is always plenty. It is evident that the bodies of birds are constructed so as to fit them for seeking their food in places at. a great distance from each other. If a quadruped were to seek this scattered food for his subsistence, he would be weary before he had filled his stomach. It is evident also, from the formation of birds, that the food intended for them is not always in one spot: to travel therefore with peculiar ease is a faculty but for which their lives could not be equally happy with those of other creatures. For this purpose, their bodies are small: now these small bodies, carried with velocity through the air, in atmospheres colder than that which surrounds quadrupeds, could not possibly retain their vital heat were they not provided with a warmer covering than hair they are, therefore, provided with feathers. I have said this to shew that, all birds are formed for travelling. Birds of passage only exceed the rest in this capacity: instead of little migrations from one part of a country to another-from the highlands to the low-from the woods to the villages-in birds of passage, the place is en larged larged the world is their country. The admirable contrivance of birds of passage may bẹ seen more clearly, if we consider that, but for these the food produced in summer could not be consumed without the assistance of a number of birds so immense that, in winter, they must either subsist by making war upon every other part of creation; or, starving peaceably, cover the fields and shores with their dead. By rendering these birds migratory, consequences thus dreadful are avoided: instead of waiting the approach of summer, they constantly accompany company that season, clear away from every country what is redundant, and leave it when their presence would distress its inhabitants." You will pardon me, Melanthe, for making my birds talk thus philosophically.-I am by no means the first fabulist that has assisted animals to speak of their own condition. If you are pleased or informed by their speeches, I trust you will not trouble yourself to call in question the capacity of the speakers. No one will be in danger of be lieving that they ever said these words-unless there be those that 36 THE CANARY-BIRD that give credit to what Æsop relates of lions, wolves and frogs. A fabulist undertakes to amuse and instruct; and you must allow him to make use of a few imaginary circumstances which he does not expect you to believe. I would have you suppose that the yellow-hammer went on, giving the Canary some account of the feathered tribes: "But who the various nations can declare |