"Tick, tick,” it said—"quick, quick, to bed';
For ten I've given warning';

Up, up, and go, or else, you know',

You'll never rise soon in the morning'."

2. A friendly voice was that old, old clock',
As it stood in the corner smiling,
And blessed the time with a merry chime,
The wintry hours beguiling';6

But a cross old voice was that tiresome clock
As it called at daybreak boldly',

When the dawn looked gray o'er the misty way,
And the early air blew coldly':

"Tick, tick,” it said—“ quick, out of bed;

For five I've given warning';

You'll never have health, you'll never get wealth,
Unless you're up soon in the morning."

"HOUSEHOLD STOCK," household goods or 4 MON'-I-TOR, one who gives warning or adfurniture.

vice.

Toйon, appearance (shining like gold).
CHIME, the sound made by striking.

5 FAL'-TER-ED, failed; hesitated.

6 BE-GUIL'-ING, causing to pass pleasantly.

LESSON XXIV.

HEALTH PROVERBS.

A HAPPY heart makes a blooming visage.
A good life keeps off wrinkles.

A penny-worth of mirth is worth a pound of sorrow.
A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.-SOLOMON.
If we subdue not our passions, they will subdue us.
Passion is a fever that leaves us weaker than it finds us.
Where reason rules, appetite obeys.

He that wants health wants every thing.

Sickness is felt, but health not at all.
Diseases are the interest paid for pleasure.

The follies of youth are food for repentance in old age.
Eat little at dinner, and less at supper.

After dinner sit a while, after supper walk a mile.

He that riseth early may walk, but he that riseth late must trot all day.

PART II.

SECOND DIVISION OF ZOOLOGY;

CONTINUED FROM THE THIRD READER, AND HERE EMBRACING

1. BIRDS are prominently distinguished from the mamma lia' by their general form and feathery covering, and by producing their young from eggs. In form and structure2 they are wisely adapted to the element3 in which they move.

2. The heads of most birds are pointed, so as easily to cleave the air; the body expands gently, and has wings which serve as movable weights to balance it, and as oars to propel1 it forward; and it diminishes by a spreading tail that helps to

keep it buoyant,5 and, at the same time, serves as a rudder to direct its course.

3. The great bones of the limbs, and many of those of the body, are hollow receptacles of air, communicating with the lungs. In various parts of the body are also bladder-like cavities which can be swollen out with warm air, so as to give the bird additional size, and enable it to float in its native element with greater ease. The quills and feathers, by their peculiar form and structure, unite the greatest possible degrees of lightness and strength.

4. Birds are divided into orders; and the divisions are made according to the various modes in which the birds are to gain their subsistence. Thus birds of prey, like the carnivorous mammalia, are distinguished by their size, strength, and remarkable length of sight The other orders of land birds, and also the two divisions of water birds, are all equally well adapted to the various modes of life marked out for them by the great Creator.

5. This principle of adaptation-of means designed for some particular end-is seen especially in the feet, or claws, and beaks of birds. In how marked a manner do the powerful talons9 of the eagles, hawks, and owls, differ from the tiny feet of the perching swallow and the wren; and the long, stilt-like legs of the ostrich, designed for running, from the webbed feet of the swimming ducks, geese, and pelicans.

Feet of Birds. See Note.

6. The beaks of birds differ perhaps still more widely. In birds of prey the beak is like a carving or dissecting knife;

FEET OF BIRDS.-1. Claw of Golden Eagle. 2. Eagle Owl. 3. Poultry bird. 4. Rock Ptarmigan. 5. Perching bird. 6. Climbing bird, Woodpecker. 7. Grebe. 8. Plover. . Phalarope. 10. Duck. 11. Ibis.

in the woodpeckers it is an effective chisel; in the snipe, the curlew, and the humming-birds, it is a long and slender probe; in the parrots it is a climbing hook or a fruit-knife; in the swallows it is a kind of fly-trap; in the swans, geese, and ducks, it is a flattened strainer; in the storks and herons it is like a fish-spear; in the seed-eating birds it forms a pair of seed-crackers for removing the kernel from the husk which covers it.

Heads of Birds. See Note.

7. And how peculiar are those instincts of birds which teach them to build their nests, each after the fashion pursued from time immemorial by its own particular species! While the untamed eagle builds its nest of a mass of sticks rudely thrown together on some inaccessible cliff, while the condor of the Andes has no nest but the bare and lofty rock, and the ostrich of the torrid zone often "leaves her eggs in the earth, and warmeth them in the sand," other birds build nests of most elaborate1o pattern and exquisite" workmanship.

8.

"Some to the holly-hedge

Nestling repair, and to the thicket some:
Some to the rude protection of the thorn
Commit their feeble offspring; the cleft tree
Offers its kind concealment to a few,

Their food its insects, and its moss their nests.

Others apart, far in the grassy dale,

Or rough'ning waste, their humble texture weave."-THOMSON.

HEADS OF BIRDS.-1. Falcon. 2. Eagle. 3. Owl. 4. Parrot. 5. Puffin. 6. Curlew. 7. Crossbill. 8. Merganser Duck. 9. Woodpecker. 10. Plover. 11. Duck. 12. Crane. 13. Humming-bird. 14. Petrel. 15. Hornbill. 16. Whip-poor-will.

9.

Nests of Birds. See Note.

"It wins my admiration
To view the structure of that little work-
A bird's nest. Mark it well, within, without;

No tool had he that wrought; no knife to cut;

No nail to fix; no bodkin to insert;

No glue to join; his little beak was all;

And yet how neatly finish'd! What nice hand,
With every implement and means of art,

And twenty years' apprenticeship to boot,
Could make me such another ?"-HURDIS.

10. The migrations12 of birds furnish us another subject which shows forth the abundant wisdom that pervades the whole economy13 of nature. Most of our summer birds leave us at the approach of winter to seek food and shelter hundreds and sometimes thousands of miles away, in sunnier climes. Who taught them thus to know the changing seasons? What hand guides and gives strength of wing to sustain them in their homeward flight? How natural that their departure from us in the closing season of the year should remind us to prepare for our departure ere the winter of death closes over us.

11.

"Ye gentle birds, that perch aloof,

And smooth your pinions14 on my roof,

NESTS OF BIRDS.-1. Cliff Swallows. 2. Sociable Weaver Birds, having entrances below, and numerous nests within. 3. Bar-tailed Humming Bird; nest of downy materials, often woven together with spiders' webs. 4. Republican Grosbeaks, or Weaver Birds; the general cover, built by the united labors of the birds, sometimes shelters hundreds of nests. 5. Chestnut-crowned Titmouse. 6. Nest of Tailor Bird, formed by stitching leaves together. 7. Pendulous Titmouse. 8. Wren. 9. Baltimore Oriole. 10. Wood Swallow. 11. Weaver Finches; suspended over water, with entrance from beneath.