Cassell's Book of Birds, Reading 1
Boring Books for Bedtime Readings to Help You Sleep
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The Feather of the Birds
The tongue of each key of the harmonium can give utterance but to one sound, one never varying tone. While the corresponding part of the bird rendered more or less tense by muscles provided for the purpose, contains within itself a whole gamut. In the perching birds, among which are found by far the most accomplished singers, five pairs of muscles are connected with this exquisitely contrived apparatus. Another indispensable provision is there for met with in the feathers, with which all birds are so warmly clad. A feather realizes in its structure more qualities than imagination could have conceived it possible to combine lightness, thickness, warmth and durability.
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