with the least resistance. Many tribes migrate, at certain seasons, from one country to another, and no less than nineteen tribes arrive in England in the spring, and leave us in the autumn; and ten other arrive in autumn and leave us in the spring. It wins my admiration To view the structure of that little work-- No glue to join: his little beak was all; 496. There are six orders of birds: HURDIS. 1. The Accipitres, or rapacious kinds; as condors, vultures, eagles, and hawks. &c. 2. Pica, or the pye-kind; as parrots, ravens, crows, 3. Censores, or the duck kind; as the swan, goose, &c. 4. Gralle, or the crane kind; as storks, flamingoes, &c. 5. Gallina, or the poultry kind; as peacocks, turkeys, partridges, &c. And 6. Passeres, or the sparrow kind; as pigeons, larks, blackbirds, nightingales, swallows, &c. But who the various nations can declare That plough with busy wing the peopled air? High on the cliff, and feasts his young with blood. BARBAULD. 497. The third class is constituted of Amphibia.These have a naked or scaly body, pointed teeth, and no fins. There are four orders: 1. Reptiles; as the crocodile, tortoise, lizard, frog, &c. 2. Serpents; as the rattle snake, boa constrictor, viper, &c.; some of which are harmless. 3. Meantes; as the siren. 4. Nantes; as torpedoes, sharks, &c. 498. The fourth class of animated beings, are fishes; the inhabitants of a different element from man, but not less wonderful in their organization, nor less various in their forms and habits than the other classes. .Many hundred species of fishes, which reside in the unfathomable depths of the ocean, are doubtless unknown to man; and he knows little of the real habits and economy even of those which are most familiar to him. Obs. The eye can reach but a very short way into the depths of the sea; and that only when its surface is glassy and serene. In many seas, it perceives nothing but a bright sandy plain at bottom, extending for several hundred miles, without an intervening object. But, in others, particularly in the Red sea, it is very different; the whole body of this extensive bed of water is, literally speaking, a forest of submarine plants, and corals formed by insects for their habitation, sometimes branching out to a great extent. Here are seen the madrepores, the sponges, mosses, sea-mushrooms, and other marine productions, covering every part of the bottom. The bed of many parts of the sea near America, presents a very different, though a very beautiful appearance, being covered with vegetables, which make it look as green as a meadow; and beneath are seen thousands of turtles, and other sea-animals, feeding. 2. "Were it not (says Hawkins) for the moving of the sea, by the force of winds, tides and currents, it would corrupt into life! An experiment of this I saw, when lying with a fleet about the islands of Azores, almost six months; the greater part of which time we were becalmed. Upon which, all the sea became so replenished with various sorts of jellies, and forms of serpents, adders, and snakes, as seemed won. derful; some green, some black, some yellow, some white, some of divers colours, and many of them had life; and some there were a yard and a half, and two yards long; which, had I not seen, I could hardly have believed. And hereof were witnesses all the companies of the ships which were then present; so that a man could hardly draw a bucket of water clear of some corruption." Mr. Boyle was also assured by one of his acquaintance, who had been becalmed for about fourteen days, in the Indian ocean, that the water, for want of motion, began to stink with life; and that, had the calm continued much longer, the stench would probably have poisoned him. These assertions may be supported by our knowledge that animal food left to corrupt, will engender life. 499. Fishes are divided into four orders: 1. Apodes; such as have no ventrical fins, as eels, congars, &c. 2. Jugulares; such as have the ventral fins placed before the pectoral, as cod, &c. 3. Thoracici; those that inspirate by the gills only, as the perch, &c. And, 4. Abdominales; those having ventral fins behind the pectoral in the abdomen, as pike, salmon, &c. 500. Insects, the fifth class of animated beings, are, in many respects, the most entitled to our wonder and attention, on account of the amazing variety of their forms and habits. Those animalcula, of which a thousand may dance on the point of a needle, are as curiously, as beautifully, and as perfectly formed, as the largest animals in nature. Myriads of creatures (each too nicely small Some, so minute, that, to their fine extreme, That yet, of organs, functions, sense partake, THOMSON. In curious limbs and clothing they surpass, By far, the comliest of the bulky mass. Obs.-Insects are small in our eyes but not so to the CREATOR, who views infinity itself at a glance; and, compared with infinity, an emmet is as large as the solar system.Largeness and smallness are terms as relative as up or down. 501. Insects, viewed through a microscope, would teach children to respect their lives and happiness, and never, in wantonness, to destroy the most apparently insignificant. The child who treads upon a worm, or destroys a fly in sport, gives indication of a wicked, cruel, or thoughtless mind. The poor beetle, that we tread upon, In corporal suff'rance, feels as great a pang SHAKSPEARE. Obs.-The influence of kind treatment on the fiercest animals, is beautifully described by Pratt, in his " Lower World." Kindness can woo the lion from his den(A moral lesson to the sons of men!) His mighty heart in silken bonds can draw; And bend his nature to sweet Pity's law. Kindness can lure the eagle from her nest, Midst sun-beams plac'd, content with man to rest : Can make the elephant, whose bulk supplies The warrior-tower, compassionate, as wise: Make the fell tygress (from her chain unbound, Herself unfed, her craving offspring round,) Forget the force of hunger and of blood, Meekly receive from man her long-wish'd food: Take too the chastisement, and (if 'tis just,) Submissive take it, crouching to the dust. Kindness can habits, nay, the nature change, Of all who swim the deep, or forests range: And for the mild, domestic train, who come, The dog-the steed-with thee to find a home: Gladly they serve thee; serve thee better too, When only happy beings meet their view: Ah! then, let gentler accents, gentler looks supply The thunders of thy voice, the lightnings of thine eye. 502. The class of insects is divided into seven orders, viz. a. Coleoptera, or insects having four wings: the two superior ones being crustacious, and furnished with a straight suture. b. Hemiptera; insects smaller than the preceding, with four wings: the two superior semi-crustacious, and the interior edges lying one upon the other. c. Lepidoptera; insects with four wings, all of them imbricated with scales. d. Neuroptera; insects having four wings interwoven with veins, like a piece of net-work, and no sting. e. Hymenoptera, insects agreeing in their characteristics with the preceding, except that these are armed with a sting. f. Diptera, insects having two wings, and two elee vated alteres (or balances), behind each. g. Aptera, insects destitute of wings. 503, Every insect is furnished with a head, antennæ, or horns, and feet. All insects, likewise, have six or more feet. They respire through pores on their sides, called spiracles. Their skin is extremely hard, and serves them instead of bones, of which they have none. The head also, the trunk, the proboscis, the feelers, the breast, the belly, the limbs, the tail, and the wings, are all objects of notice to the entomologist. See the proud giant of the beetle-race! BARRAULD, 504. Worms are, according to the Linnæan system, the sixth class. Some of them have only two senses; others no head; and most of them, no feet. They are divided into five orders: 1. Intestinal worms; as tape-worms, leeches, &c. 2. Molluscous worms; chiefly inhabiting the sea. 3. Testaceous worms; as muscles, cockles, oysters, snails, &c. |