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But how come they to be directed to the fame place yearly, though fometimes but a little Ifland, as the Soland Goofe to the Basse of Edinburgh Frith, which they could not poffibly fee, and fo it could have no influence upon them that way ? The Cold or the Heat might poffibly drive them in a right line from either, but that they should impel Land-Birds to venture over a wide Ocean, of which they can fee no end, is ftrange and unaccountable: One would think that the fight of fo much Water, and present fear of drowning fhould overcome the sense of Hunger, or difagreeableness of the temper of the Air. Befides, how come they to steer their courfe aright to their feveral Quarters, which before the Compafs was invented was hard for Man himself to do, they being not able, as I noted before, to fee them at that distance? Think we that the Quails, for inftance, could fee quite crofs the Mediterranean Sea ? And yet, it's clear, they fly out of Italy into Africk: lightning many times on Ships in the midft of the Sea, to reft themfelves when tir'd and spent with flying. That they should thus fhift places, is very convenient for them, and accordingly we fee they do it; which feems to be impoffible they fhould, unless themselves were endu'd with Reafon, or directed and acted by a Superior Intelligent Cause.

The like inay be faid of the migration of divers forts of Fishes. As for example; The Salmon, which from the Sea yearly afcends up

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Part I. a River fometimes 400 or 500 Miles, only to caft their Spawn, and fecure it in Banks of Sand, for the preservation of it 'till the Young be hatch'd or excluded, and then return to Sea again. How thefe Creatures when they have been wandring a long time in the wide Ocean, fhould again find out and repair to the Mouths of the fame Rivers, feems to me very strange, and hardly accountable, without recourse to Inftinct, and the Direction of a Superiour Caufe. That Birds, feeing they have no Teeth for the maftication and preparation of their Food, fhould for the more convenient comminution of it in their Stomachs or Gizzards, fwallow down little Pebble-ftones, or other hard Bodies, and because all are not fit or proper for that ufe, fhould firft try them in their Bills, to feel whether they be rough or angular, for their turns; which if they find them not to be, they reject them. When thefe by the working of the Stomach are worn fmooth, or too fmall for their ufe, they avoid them by fiege, and pick up others. That thefe are of great ufe to them for the grinding of their Meat, there is no doubt. And I have obferv'd in Birds, that have been kept up in Houses, where they could get no Pebbles, the very Yolks of their Eggs have changed colour, and become a great deal paler, than theirs who have had their liberty to go abroad.

Befides, I have observed in many Birds, the Gullet, before its entrance into the Gizzard, to be much dilated, and thick fet, or as it

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were granulated, with a multitude of Glandules, each whereof was provided with its excretory Veffel, out of which by an eafie preffure, you might fqueeze a Juice or Pap, which ferved for the fame ufe which the Saliva doth in Quadrupeds; that is, for the macerating and diffolution of the Meat into a Chyle. For that the Saliva notwithstanding its infipidness, hath a notable Virtue of macerating and diffolving Bodies, appears by the effects it hath in kil ling of Quickfilver, fermenting of Dough like Leaven or Yeaft, taking away Warts, and cu ring other cutaneous Diftempers; fometimes exulcerating the Jaws, and rotting the Teeth.

Give me leave to add one particular more concerning Birds, which fome may perchance think too homely and indecent to be mentioned in such a Difcourfe as this; yet because it is not below the Providence of Nature, and de figned for Cleanlinefs, and fome great Men have thought it worth the obferving, I need not be ashamed to take notice of it; that is, that in young Birds that are fed in the Neft, the Excrement that is avoided at one time is fo vifcid, that it hangs together in a great lump, as if it were inclofed in a Film, fo that it may eafily be taken up, and carried away by the old Bird in her Bill. Befides by a ftrange inftinct, the young Bird elevates her hinder parts fo high, for the most part, that fhe feldom fails to caft what comes from her clear over the fide of the Neft. So we fee here is a double Provifion made to keep the.

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Neft clean, which if it were defiled with Ordure, the Young Ones muft neceffarily be utterly marred and ruined. 7. The Bee, a Creature of the loweft form of Animals, fo that no Man can fufpect it to have any confiderable Measure of Understanding, or to have Knowledege of, much lefs to aim at any End, yet makes her Combs and Cells with that Geometrical Accuracy, that the muft needs be Acted by an Inftinct implanted in her by the wife Author of Nature. For first, she plants them in a perpendicular pofture, and fo clofe together as with conveniency they may, beginning at the top, and working downwards, that fo no room may be loft in the Hive, and that he may have eafie accefs to all the Combs and Cells. Befides, the Combs being wrought double, that is, with Cells on each fide, a common Bottom or Partition-wall, could not in any other fite have fo conveniently, if at all, received or contained the Honey. Then fhe makes the particular Cells most Geometrically and Artificially, as the famous Mathematician Pappus demonftrates in the Preface to his third Book of Mathematical Collections. First of all (faith he, fpeaking of the Cells) it is convenient that they be of fuch figures as may cohere one to another, and have common fides, elfe there would be empty spaces left between them to no ufe, but to the weakening and spoiling of the work, if any thing fhould get in there. And therefore tho' a round figure be moft capacious for the Honey,

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and most convenient for the Bee to creep into, yet did fhe not make choice of that, becaufe then there must have been triangular spaces left void. Now there are only three rectilineous and ordinate figures which can ferve to this purpose; and inordinate, or unlike ones, must have been not only lefs elegant and beautiful, but unequal. [Ordinate Figures are fuch as have all their Sides, and all their Angles equal.] The three Ordinate Figures,are Triangles,Squares and Hexagons. For the fpace about any point may be filled up either by fix equilateral Triangles, or four Squares, or three Hexagons; whereas three Pentagons are too little, and three Heptagons too much. Ofthese three the Bee makes ufe of the Hexagon, both because it is more capacious than either of the other, provided they be of equal compafs, and fo equal matter spent in the conftruction of each: And Secondly, Because it is moft commodious for the Bee to creep into: And Laftly, Because in the other Figures more Angles and Sides must have met together at the fame point, and fo the Work could not have been fo firm and ftrong. Moreover, the Combs being double, the Cells on each fide the partitton are fo order'd, that the Angles on one fide, infift upon the Centers of the bottoms of the Cel's on the other fide, and not Angle upon, or against Angle; which alfo muft needs contribute to the ftrength and firmness of the work. Thefe Cells the fills with Honey for her Winter Provifion, and curiously clofes them up with Covers of Wax,

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