found a large uncommon bird fluttering in the heath, but not wounded, which he brought home alive. On examination it proved to be Colymbus glacialis, Linn: the great speckled diver or loon, which is most excellently defcribed in Willoughby's ornithology.

Every part and proportion of this bird is fo incomparably adapted to its mode of life, that in no inftance do we see the wisdom of God in the creation to more advantage. The head is fharp, and fmaller than the part of the neck adjoining, in order that it may pierce the water; the wings are placed forward and out of the center of gravity, for a purpose which fhall be noticed here after; the thighs quite at the podex in order to facilitate diving; and the legs are flat, and as sharp backwards almost as the edge of a knife, that in ftriking they may eafily cut the water; while the feet are palmated, and broad for fwimming, yet fo folded up when advanced forward to take a fresh ftroke, as to be full as narrow as the thank. The two exterior toes of the feet are longeft; the nails, flat and broad refembling the human, which

give ftrength and increase the power of fwimming. The foot, when expanded, is not at right angles to the leg or body of the bird: but the exterior part inclining towards the head forms an acute angle with the body; the intention being not to give motion in the line of the legs themselves, but by the combined impulfe of both in an intermediate line, the line of the body.

Most people know, that have obferved at all, that the swimming of birds is nothing more than a walking in the water, where one foot fucceeds the other as on the land; yet no one, as far as I am aware, has remarked that diving fowls, while under water, impel and row themselves forward by a motion of their wings, as well as by the impulfe of their feet: but fuch is really the cafe, as any perfon may easily be convinced who will obferve ducks when hunted by dogs in a clear pond. Nor do I know that any one has given a reafon why the wings of diving fowls are placed fo forward: doubtlefs, not for the purpofe of promoting their speed in flying, fince that pofition certainly impedes it;

but probably for the increafe of their motion under water, by the ufe of four oars inftead of two; yet were the wings and feet nearer Together, as in land birds, they would, when in action, rather hinder than aflift one another.

This Colymbus was of confiderable bulk, weighing only three drachms fhort of three pounds avoirdupois. It measured in length from the bill to the tail (which was very fhort) two feet; and to the extremities of the toes four inches more; and the breadth of the wings expanded was 42 inches. A perfon attempted to eat the body, but found it very ftrong and rancid, as is the flesh of all birds living on fish. Divers or Loons, though bred in the moft northerly parts of Europe, yet are feen with us in very fevere winters; and on the Thames are called fprat loons, becaufe they prey much on that fort of fish.

The legs of the Colymbi and Mergi are placed fo very backward, and fo out of all center of gravity, that thefe birds cannot walk at all. They are called by Linnæus compedes, because they move on the ground as if fhackled, or fettered.

Contrafts and Confonancies between Animals and the Earth. From Dr. Hunter's Tranflation of St. Pierre's Studies of Nature.

THERE is feen, on the fhores of India, a large and beautiful bird, white and fire-coloured, called the Flamingo, not that it is of Flemish extraction, but the name is derived from the old French

word flambant, (flaming) because it appears, at a diftance, like a flame of fire. He generally inhabits in fwampy grounds, and salt marfhes, in the waters of which he conftructs his neft, by raifing out of the moisture, of a foot deep, a little hillock of mud, a foot and a half high. He makes a hole in the fummit of this little hillock; in this the hen depofits two eggs and hatches them, with her feet funk in the water, by means of the extreme length of her legs. When feveral of thefe birds are fitting at the fame time on their eggs, in the midft of a fwamp, you would take them, at a difiance, for the flames of a conflagration, burfing from the bofom of the waters.

as

Other fowls prefent contrafts of a different kind on the fame fhores. The pelican, or wide throat, is a bird white and brown, provided with a large bag under its beak, which is of exceffive length. Out he goes every morning to ftore his bag with fith: and, the fupply of the day having been accomplished, he perches on fome pointed rocks on a level with the water, where he ftands immoveable till the evening, fays father Du Tertre *, in a ftate of profound forrow, with the head drooping, from the weight of his long bill, and eyes fixed on the agitated ocean, as motionless as a ftatue of marble." On the dufky ftrand of those feas may frequently be diftinguifhed herons white as fnow, and in the azure plains of the fky, the paillencu of a very white, fkimming through it almoft out of fight: he is fometimes glazed over with a bright red, having likewife the two long

feathers

feathers of his tail the colour of fire, as that of the South-Seas.

In many cafes, the deeper that the ground is, the more brilliant are the colours in which the animal, deftined to live upon it, is arrayed. We have not, perhaps, in Europe, any infect with richer and gayer cloathing than the ftercoraceous fcarab, and the fly, which bears the fame epithet. This latt is brighter than burnished gold and fteel; the other, of a hemifpherical form, is of a fine blue, inclining to purple and in order to render the contraft complete he exhales a ftrong and agreeable odour of mulk.

:

Nature has bestowed at once, in the colours of innoxious animals, contrafts with the ground on which they live, and confonances with that which is adjacent, and has fuperadded the inflinct of employing thefe alternately, according as good or bad fortune prompts. These wonderful accommodations may be remarked in most of our small birds, whofe flight is feeble, and of short duration. The gray lark finds her fubfiftence among the grafs of the plains? Does any thing terrify her? She glides away, and takes her ftation between two little clods of earth, where the becomes invifible. On this poft fhe remains in fuch perfect tranquillity, as hardly to quit it, when the foot of the fowler is ready to crush her.

The fame thing is true of the partridge. I have no doubt that thefe defenceless birds have a fenfe of thofe contrafts and correfpondencies of colour, for I have remarked it even in infects. In the month

of March laft, I observed, by the brink of the rivulet which washes the Gobelins*, a butterfly of the colour of brick, repofing with expanded wings on a tuft of grass. On my approaching him, he flew off. He alighted, at fome paces dif tance, on the ground, which, at that place, was of the fame colour with himself. I approached him a fecond time; he took a fecond flight, and perched again on a fimilar ftripe of earth. In a word, I found it was not in my power to oblige him to alight on the grafs, though I made frequent attempts to that effect, and though the spaces of earth which separated the turfy foil were narrow, and few in number.

This wonderful inftinct, is, likewife, confpicuoufly evident in the cameleon. This fpecies of lizard, whofe motion is extremely flow, is indemnified for this, by the incomprehenfible faculty of affuming, at pleafure, the colour of the ground over which he moves. With this advantage, he is enabled to elude the eye of his purfuer, whofe fpeed would foon have overtaken him. This faculty is in his will, for his fkin is by no means a mirror. It reflects only the colour of obje&s, and not their form. What is farther fingularly remarkable in this, and perfectly afcertained by naturalifts though they affign no reason for it, he can affume all colours, as brown, gray, yellow, and especially green, which is his favourite colour, but never red. The cameleon has been placed, for weeks together, amida fearlet ftuffs, without acquiring the

flightet

1

flighteft fhade of that colour. Nature seems to have with-held from the creature this fhining hue, because it could ferve only to render him perceptible at a greater diftance; and, farther, because this colour is that of the ground of no fpecies of earth, or of vegetable, on which he is defigned to pass his life.

But, in the age of weakness and inexperience, nature confounds the colour of the harmlefs animals, with that of the ground on which they inhabit, without committing to them the power of choice. The young of pigeons, and of moft granivorous fowls, are clothed with a greenifh fhaggy coat, refembling the moffes of the nefts. Cater pillars are blind, and have the complexion of the foliage, and of the barks, which they devour. Nay, the young fruits, before they come to be armed with prickles, or inclosed in cafes, in bitter pulps, in hard fhells, to protect their feeds, are, during the feason of their expanfion, green as the leaves which furround them. Some embryons, it is true, fuch as thofe of certain pears, are ruddy or brown; but they are then of the colour of the bark of the tree to which they belong. When those fruits have inclosed their feeds in kernels, or nuts, fo as to be in no farther danger, they then change colour. They become yellow, blue, gold-coloured, red, black, and give to their refpective trees their natural contrafts. It is trikingly remarkable, that every fruit which has changed colour has feed in a state of maturity.

It is in the countries of the North, and on the fummit of cold mountains, that the pine grows, and the fir, and the cedar, and moit

part of refinous trees; which fhelter man from the fnows by the closenefs of their foliage, and which furnish him, during the winter feafon, with torches, and fuel for his fire-fide. It is very remarkable, that the leaves of those evergreen trees are filiform, and are extremely adapted, by this configuration, which poffeffes the farther advantage of reverberating the heat, like the hair of animals, for refiftance to the impetuofity of the winds, that beat with peculiar violence on elevated fituations. The Swedish naturalifts have obferved, that the fatteft pines are to be found on the dryest and most sandy regions of Norway. The larch, which takes equal pleasure in the cold mountains, has a very resinous trunk.

Mathiola, in his useful commentary on Diofcorides, informs us, that there is no substance more proper than the charcoal of these trees, for promptly melting the iron minerals, in the vicinity of which they peculiarly thrive. They are, befides, loaded with moffes, fome fpecies of which catch fire from the flightest spark. He relates, that being obliged, on a certain occafion, to pafs the night in the lofty mountains of the Strait of Trento, where he was botanizing, he found there a great quantity of larches (larix) bearded all over, to ufe his own expreffion, and completely whitened with mofs. The Thepherds of the place, willing to amufe him, fet fire to the moffes of fome of these trees, which was immediately communicated with the rapidity of gun-powder touched with a match. Amidft the obfcurity of the night, the flame and the fparks feemed to afcend up to

the