[ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES.]
The chief illustration of a book is incontestably the formula in which it is summed up. Here it is, then, in few words:—
This book has considered the bird in himself, and but little in relation to man.
The bird, born in a much lower condition than man (oviparous, like the serpent), possesses three advantages over him, which are his special mission:—
I. The wing, flight, an unique power, which is the dream of man. Every other creature is slow. Compared with the falcon or swallow, the Arab horse is a snail.
II. Flight itself does not appertain solely to the wing, but to an incomparable power of respiration and vision. The bird is peculiarly the son of air and light.
III. An essentially electrical being, the bird sees, knows, and foresees earth and sky, the weather, the seasons. Whether through an intimate relation with the globe, whether through a prodigious memory of localities and routes, he is always facing eastward, and always knows his path.
He swoops; he penetrates; he attains what man shall never attain. This is evident, particularly in his marvellous war against the reptile and the insect.