it is thought, by a peculiar odour which the legs of the bird communicate to the water. This provision to satisfy its wants seems very necessary, for its appetite is enormous. Among other examples of its voracious appetite, Willoughby gives the following:"Several gentlemen who kept tame herons, to try what quantity one of them would eat in a day, put several small roach and dace in a tub; and they found him eat fifty in a day, one day with another. In this manner a single heron will destroy fifteen thousand carp in half a year." But it is not always that he can indulge in such "riotous living." In cold and stormy weather his usual food is beyond his reach, the fish having retired to the deeper parts of the water, and even the frogs and lizards not daring to venture from their lurking places. In these circumstances, says Goldsmith, "the heron is obliged to support himself upon his long habits of patience, and even to take up with the weeds that grow upon the water. At those times he contracts a consumptive disposition which succeeding plenty is not able to remove; so that the meagre glutton spends his time between want and riot, and feels alternately the extremes of famine and excess. Hence, notwithstanding the care with which he takes his prey, and the amazing quantity he devours, the heron is always lean and emaciated; and though his crop be usually found full, his flesh is scarcely sufficient to cover his bones." Here we see the bad effects of wasting and dissipation. When people thoughtlessly squander what they receive, although they may appear to be rich, it will not be long before they come to want. In many instances, a little care and forethought would prevent a great deal of misery. Many who waste their time in youth, neglecting to cultivate their minds, grow up in ignorance, unfit to fill any position of trust, while many others, who live in profligacy, are brought to want and wretchedness, and ultimately to an early and miserable death. We hope our young friends, warned by the gluttonous heron, will imitate the provident ant, who spends the bright summer days in storing up provisions for the winter. Now is your time for improvement; the diligent and pious youth cannot fail to become a good and prosperous

inan.

Although the heron chiefly frequents pools and marshes, it selects the highest trees in which to build its nest. Generally a grove is chosen for this purpose; and although they seek their food separately, yet at nesting time they seem to prefer each other's society, as they congregate in great numbers, and take possession

of the grove. Their nests are made of sticks, lined with wool; but when they can get one ready made by a rook or owl, they immediately take possession of it. Dr. Heysham has given a curious account of a contest between a colony of herons and rooks. In consequence of the grove in which the herons dwelt being cut down, they attacked the rookery, for the purpose of obtaining quarters, but were driven off after a severe contest and some slaughter. The next year they proceeded to attack again, and being victorious, a treaty of peace was agreed to between the two parties, and both continued to occupy the same grove in quietness. It is said when herons are attacked, they have a strong propensity to peck out the eyes of their enemies; they have even been known, when to all appearance dead, suddenly to start up, and, with unerring aim, to inflict no little injury on the eye of the unsuspecting captor. Captain Owen, in his "Voyages on the Coast of Africa," says, "I winged a beautiful aigrette (a species of heron) that was passing overhead, and brought it to the ground; when, as I was in the act of picking it up, it struck at my eye with its beak, and had it not been for my glasses, must inevitably have reduced it to perpetual darkness. I have since heard of a gentleman who, under similar circumstances, was not so fortunate. He still lives; and I shall feel pleasure if, by stating this incident, it should be the means of saving others from so distressing a circumstance."

Their beaks are very powerful, both for attack and defence; of this Captain Brown gives us an example. He says, "A gentleman being on a shooting excursion, accompanied by a small spaniel, observed a heron wading a little above a waterfall. He fired, wounded it, and sent his dog into the stream to bring it to land. As soon as the dog had come within its reach, the heron drew back its head, and then with all its force struck him in the ribs with its bill. The gentleman again fired and killed the heron, but it had well revenged itself; the dog and the bird floated dead together down the foaming waterfall."

The heron is said to be a very long-lived bird, its age having been asserted by some to exceed sixty years. In the Jewish law the heron was pronounced unclean, and therefore unfit for food (see Lev. xi. 19, and Deut. xiv. 18).

The crane has much in common with the heron, but is considerably larger, and its food is more vegetable. Formerly this bird was common in Britain, but now its visits may be regarded as purely accidental. Nor need we at all regret this, as when a flock

of them light on a field they commit great depredations. The field of grain newly sown presents to them an attraction too great to be resisted, even in their migratory flights; accordingly they descend, and in one short night they do incredible damage-the husbandman rising in the morning to find his field, on which he had expended so much trouble, laid waste by an enemy of whose coming and departure he knew nothing. When the grain happens to be grown up and is green, after one of their visits, it presents an appearance as if it had been trampled down by an army of soldiers. When a flock are feeding, several of the number stand out from the rest, apparently as sentinels, and at intervals they stretch out their necks to see that all is safe. On the slightest danger appearing, the alarm is given, and the whole flock is instantly on the wing. It has been asserted that, in the night time, each of the watching cranes, which rest on their left legs, hold in their right claw a stone of considerable weight, in order that, if overcome by sleep, the falling of the stone may awaken them! Of the truthfulness of this, however, we have our doubts.

In

The regular order in which the cranes migrate from one place to another, has attracted attention from the earliest times. their flights, in order to cut the air with the greatest ease, they assume a wedge-like form, the thin edge, of course, going first; and they ascend so high in the air as to be almost out of sight. The description Milton gives of them is very beautiful :

"Part loosely wing the region; part, more wise,

In common ranged in figure, wedge their way,
Intelligent of seasons, and set forth

Their airy caravan; high over seas

Flying, and over lands, with mutual wing

Easing their flight. So steers the prudent crane

Her annual voyage, borne on winds; the air

Floats as they pass, fanned with unnumbered plumes."

Nature has gifted them with singular powers of voice, and as they fly, they call to one another. These calls are so loud that they can be distinctly heard, even when the birds are so high as scarcely to be seen. The whooping crane of America-which is a stately bird, measuring nearly five feet in height-no doubt owes its name to its sonorous voice. It was heard with astonishment by Captain Amidas-the first Englishman who ever landed in North Americawhen he visited the island of Wokokou, off the coast of North Carolina. "Such a flock of cranes," says he (the most part white), arose under us, with such a cry, redoubled by many echoes,

as if an army of men had shouted all together." These birds, in their annual flights from north to south, assemble in vast numbers, and their clamour, as it sounds forth high in the air, is almost deafening.

The Numidian crane is justly celebrated for the beauty of its plumage and elegance of its carriage. The French call it the demoiselle, or lady, for, to their lively imaginations, its mimic gestures have the appearance of dancing. "It stoops, rises, lifts

one wing, then another. turns round, sails forward, then back again," keeping time with its head and mandibles. Our sailors. not so well skilled in the dancing art, are much amused at its gesticulations, and call it the buffoon bird.

Both the crane and heron were, at one time, in great requisition by those who amused themselves with falconry. This game, not less cruel or degrading than cock-fighting, was followed. from a very early age, by kings and their courtiers, down to a recent date. Goldsmith thus describes it:-" The method is to fly

several hawks against the crane, which it endeavours to avoid by flying up perpendicularly, till the air becomes too thin to support it any higher. The hawk, however, still bears it company; and though less fitted for floating in so thin a medium, yet, possessed of greater rapidity, it still gains the ascendancy. They both often rise out of sight; but soon the spectator who keeps his eyes fixed above, perceives them, like two specks, beginning to appear. They gather on his eye for a little space, and shortly after come tumbling perpendicularly together, with great animosity on the side of the hawk, and a loud screaming on that of the crane. Thus driven to extremity, and unable to fly, the poor animal throws itself upon its back, and, in that situation, makes a most desperate defence, till the sportsman coming up, generally puts an end to the contest with its life."

It is said the crane forms very strong attachments to the object of its affections. Two of them were one time kept in an aviary in England, and one having died, the other appeared inconsolable, and began to pine away, as if it, too, would die. A looking-glass was put into the cage, and the bird seeing its shadow reflected, thought it was its former companion. Advancing to the glass, the other seemed to advance to meet it; bowing before it, the bow was duly returned; and under the influence of this pleasing delusion, the bird recovered its strength, and lived for several years. Not so happily did another case of attachment end, of which we are told. The object of the crane's affections, in this instance, was not a bird, but a man, who was a Spaniard. He was so beloved by the crane that it would walk anywhere with him, and in his absence seek about for him, make a noise that he might hear, and knock at his door; and when he took his departure, the bird, not able to sustain its loss, abstained from all food, and died.

POLITENESS AT HOME.

ALWAYS speak with politeness and deference to your parents and friends. Some children are polite and civil everywhere else except at home; but there they are coarse and rude. Shameful!

Nothing sits so gracefully upon children, nothing makes them so lovely, as habitual respect and

dutiful deportment towards their friends and superiors. It makes the plainest face beautiful, and gives to every common action a nameless but a peculiar charm.

"My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother: for they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck (Prov. i. 8, 9).