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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.

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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.

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9.

To view the

A bird's nest.

Nests of Birds. See Note.

"It wins my admiration structure of that little work

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 migrations 12 of birds furnish us another subject which shows forth the abundant wisdom that pervades the whole economy 13 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.

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, rivaling the hues of the rainbow, mock the efforts of the artist to depict 16 them in their gorgeous richness and beauty.

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 great classes, 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 have 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'-ŪRE, arrangement of parts.

8 ۀR-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.

7 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-PICT', 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:

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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 chorused5 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.

1 STÄRK, lone; still; barren.

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

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

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.

4 ED'-DIES, moves circularly when falling to 8 RE-QUI-EM, a hymn sung for the dead,

the ground.

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