But how come they to be directed to the fame Place yearly, though fometimes but a little Ifland, as the Soland Goofe to the Baffe 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 fhould 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 prefent fear of drowning fhould overcome the Senfe of Hunger, or difagreebleness of the Temper of the Air. Befides, how come they to fteer their courfe aright to their feveral Quarters, which before the Compass was invented was hard for a Man himself to do, they being not able, as I noted before, to see them at that Distance? Think we that the Quails, for Inftance, could fee quite cross the Mediterranean Sea? And yet, it's clear, they fly out of Italy into Africk, lighting many times on Ships in the Midst 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 Reason, or directed and acted by a fuperior intelligent Cause.

The like may be faid of the migration of divers Sorts of Fishes. As for Example; The Salmon, which from the Sea yearly ascends up K

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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 these 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, seems to me very strange, and hardly accountable, without recourfe to Instinct, and the Direction of a Superior Cause. 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-stones, or other hard Bodies, and because all are not fit or proper for that use, fhould first 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 these by the working of the Stomach are worn fmooth, or too fmall for their use, they avoid them by fiege, and pick up others. That these 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 obferved 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 squeeze 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 Yeast, taking away Warts, and curing other cutaneous Diftempers; sometimes 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 fuch a Difcourfe as this; yet because it is not below the Providence of Nature, and defigned for Cleanliness, and fome great Men have thought it worth the observing, I need not be afham'd 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 inclosed in a Film, fo that it may easily 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 Forms of Animals, fo that no Man can fufpect it to have any confiderable Measure of Understanding, or to have Knowledge of, much less to aim at any End, yet makes her Combs and Cells with that Geometrical Accuracy, that fhe must needs be Acted by an Instinct implanted in her by the wife Author of Nature. For firft, fhe plants them in a perpendicular Posture, and so close 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 she may have eafie Access to all the Combs and Cells. Befides, the Combs being wrought Double, that is, with Cells on each Side, a common Bottom or Partition-wall, could not in any other Site have fo conveniently, if at all, received or contained the Honey. Then fhe makes the particular Cells moft 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 such 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 fpoiling 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 moft convenient for the Bee to creep into, yet did fhe not make choice of that, because 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 space 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. Of these three the Bee makes use of the Hexagon, both because it is more capacious than either of the other, provided they be of equal compafs, and fo equal matter fpent in the Construction of each: And Secondly, Because it is most 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 Side the Partition are so order'd, that the Angles on one Side, infist upon the Centers of the bottoms of the Cells on the other Side, and not Angle upon, or against Angle; which also muft needs contribute to the Strength and Firmness of the Work. These Cells fhe fills with Honey for her Winter Provifion, and curiously clofes them up with Covers of Wax,

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