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12.

Preparing for departure hence,

Now Winter's angry threats commence;

Like you, my soul would smooth her plume
For longer flights beyond the tomb.

"May God, by whom is seen and heard
Departing men and wandering bird,

In mercy mark us for his own,

And guide us to the land unknown!"-W. HAYLEY.

13. The dress or plumage of birds is not only admirable for its fitness to the ends for which it was designed for its softness, smoothness, compactness, and lightness - but also for the most brilliant coloring which is lavished upon so many of the "winged denizens15 of the air." This is more especially true of birds of the torrid zone, whose glowing colors, ri valing the hues of the rainbow, mock the efforts of the artist to depict 16 them in their gorgeous richness and beauty.

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14. But it is the singing of birds—the melody of the songsters of the grove"-and the grace of their motions, not less than their beautiful plumage, which have thrown such a charm around these "creatures of freedom and light," as ever to have made them favorite subjects of poetry and song. The study of the forms, history, and habits of birds, abundantly illustrated as all these subjects have been by the genius of the poet and the painter, can not fail to be both interesting and instructive to every lover of Nature; and its happy tendency must be to lead the mind "from Nature up to Nature's God."

15. The first and most plainly-marked division of birds is into two large groups, Land Birds and Water Birds. Of the former there are five great divisions or orders, which are designated as, 1st, Birds of Prey; 2d, Perchers, or sparrow-like birds; 3d, Climbers, such as the parrots, woodpeckers, and cuckoos; 4th, Scratchers, or poultry birds; and, 5th, Runners, which embrace the ostriches. Of the Water Birds there are two great divisions or orders, designated by the names Waders and Swimmers.

16. These divisions into orders take their rise chiefly from marked differences in the feet or claws of birds, some of which lave already been noticed. Each of these orders is farther di

vided into families-the external marks on which these divisions are founded being chiefly differences in the forms of the bills. Thus some families are known as the cleft-bills, some as toothed-bills, some as cone-bills, and others as thin-bills. The whole number of different species of birds described has been estimated at about six thousand.

1 MAM-MA'-LI-A, animals that suckle their young. See Third Reader.

2 STRUCT'-URE, arrangement of parts.

8 CAR-NIV'-O-ROUS, flesh-eating.

9 TAL-ON, the whole foot of a bird of prey. 10 E-LAB'-O-RATE, studied with great care.

3 EL-E-MENT, natural dwelling-place, as the 11 EX'-QUIS-ITE, very nice; exact.

air.

4 PRO-PEL', move.

5 BUÖY-ANT, light; floating.

6 RE-CEP -TA-CLE, a place in which thing is contained.

1 CAV-I-TIES, hollow places.

12 MI-GRA'-TION, removal from one climate or country to another.

13 E-CON'-O-MY, arrangement; plan.

some-14 PIN'-IONS, feathers; wings.
15 DEN'-I-ZENS, inhabitants.
16 DE-PIOT', to paint.

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1. BIRDS-birds! ye are beautiful
things,

With your earth-treading feet and

your cloud-cleaving wings;

Where shall man wander, and where shall he dwell,
Beautiful birds, that ye come not as well?

2. Ye have nests on the mountain all rugged and stark,1
Ye have nests in the forest all tangled and dark:
Ye build and ye brood2 'neath the cottagers' eaves,
And ye sleep on the sod 'mid the bonnie3 green leaves;
Ye hide in the heather, ye lurk in the brake,
Ye dive in the sweet-flags that shadow the lake:

Ye skim where the stream parts the orchard-decked land, Ye dance where the foam sweeps the desolate strand.

3. Beautiful birds! ye come thickly around

When the bud's on the branch and the snow's on the

ground;

Ye come when the richest of roses flush out, And ye come when the yellow leaf eddies about. 4. Beautiful birds! how the school-boy remembers The warblers that chorused his holiday tune; The robin that chirped in the frosty December, The blackbird that whistled through flower-crowned June:

The school-boy remembers his holiday ramble,

When he pulled every blossom of palm he could see, When his finger was raised as he stopped in the bramble With “Hark! there's the cuckoo; how near he must be!"

5. Beautiful creatures of freedom and light!

Oh! where is the eye that groweth not bright
As it watches you trimming your soft glossy coats,
Swelling your bosoms, and ruffling your throats?
Oh! I would not ask, as the old ditties sing,
To be "happy as sand-boy," or "happy as king;"
For the joy is more blissful that bids me declare,
"I'm as happy as all the wild birds of the air."
6. I will tell them to find me a grave when I die,

Where no marble will shut out the glorious sky;
Let them give me a tomb where the daisy will bloom,
Where the moon will shine down, and the leveret pass by;
But be sure there's a tree stretching out far and wide,
Where the linnet, the thrush, and the woodlark may hide;
For the truest and purest of requiems heard
Is the eloquent hymn of the beautiful bird.

STÄRK, lone; still; barren.

BROOD, sit on and cover their eggs in their nests.

BON'-NIE (or bon'-ny), gay; cheerful.

8

ELIZA COOK.

5 CHō'-RUSED, sung in chorus or concert.

6 DIT'-TIES, little poems to be sung.

7 LEV'-ER-ET, a hare in the first year of her age.

ED'-DIES, Moves circularly when falling to 8 RE-QUI-EM, a hymn sung for the dead. the ground.

[subsumed][merged small][merged small][graphic][subsumed][subsumed]

1. Golden Eagle, Aquila chrysota. 2. Peregrine Falcon, Falco peregrinus. 3. Pald Eagle, Haliaeetus leucocephalus. 4. Common Kite, Falco milvus. 5. Swallow-tailed Hawk, Falco furcatus. 6. Mexican Harpy Eagle, Thrasætus harpyia. 7. Ger-falcon, Falco gyrfalco. 8. Sparrow Hawk, Falco nisus. 9. South American Crested Hawk, Spizatus cristatellus. 10. Goshawk, Falco palumbarius. 11. Osprey, Falco halietus.

1. THE first order of birds consists of the birds of prey, which embrace three families, known as, 1st, the FALCONS, which include the eagles, kites, buzzards, and hawks; 2d, the VULTURES; and, 3d, the OWLS. All of the falcon tribe, except two or three of the larger eagles, are generally known by the common name of hawks. The birds of prey and the carnivorous quadrupeds are very much alike in general character, both being large and strong, of dispositions fierce and daring, and the whole frame adapted for swift pursuit or powerful action.

2. In treating of the falcon tribe the first place is given to the EAGLE, on account of its great size and strength, the

grandeur of its aspect, and the dignity of its movements. The golden eagle, which is about three feet in length, having a plumage of a deep and rich yellowish-brown, glossed on the back and wings with purple, is a truly magnificent bird, and has ever been associated with majesty or nobility. By the ancient Greeks and Romans he was called the "bird of Jove;" and by all rude and savage nations he is regarded as the appropriate emblem1 of courage and independence.

3. The golden eagle is found throughout the whole circuit of the globe. The eyry2 of this noble bird is generally the face of some stupendous inland cliff, with its nest on a projecting shelf, or on some dwarf tree that grows from the rock, generally in a situation difficult of access, and often out of the reach of shot either from below or from the top of the precipice.

4. The eagle, when in search of food, surveys the ground by soaring above it, often to an immense height; and when its rapid eye detects its prey, it rushes downward with the rapidity of an arrow, and seldom fails to seize the object at which it aims. In this manner hares, lambs, grouse, and sometimes the young of deer and foxes, are borne away to feed its young.

5. During our revolutionary war a golden eagle had placed her nest below one of the cliffs on the Hudson River. A soldier was let down by his companions, suspended by a rope round his body. When he reached the nest he suddenly found himself furiously assailed by the eagle. In self-defense he drew the only weapon about him, his knife, and made repeated thrusts at the bird, when accidentally he cut the rope nearly off. It began unraveling, when those above hastily drew him up, and relieved him from his perilous situation at the moment when he expected to be precipitated to the bottom; but so powerful was the effect of the fear he had experienced, that within three days his head became quite gray. 6. The white-headed, or bald eagle, as it is called, equaling in size the golden eagle, is the most common of the eagle tribe in this country, and the one adopted by us as our national emblem. It is not bald-headed, as its name indicates; but the appearance of the white feathers of the head, con

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