With joy and oft an unintruding guest,

I watched her secret toils from day to day; How true she warped the moss to form her nest,

And modelled it within with wood and clay; And by and by, like heath bells gilt with dew, There lay her shining eggs as bright as flowers, Ink spotted over, shells of green and blue :

And there I witnessed, in the summer hours, A brood of nature's minstrels chirp and fly, Glad as the sunshine and the laughing sky.

1793-1864.

JOHN CLARE.

A WREN'S NEST.

AMONG the dwellings framed by birds
In field or forest with nice care,
Is none that with the little wren's
In snugness can compare.

No door the tenement requires,

And seldom needs a labored roof;

Yet it is to the fiercest sun

Impervious and storm proof.

So warm, so beautiful withal,
In perfect fitness for its aim,
That to the kind, by special grace,
Their instinct surely came.

There to the brooding bird her mate

Warbles by fits his low, clear

And by the busy streamlet both

song;

Are sung to all day long.

WORDSWORTH.

CHORUS OF BIRDS.

WE wish to declare how the Birds of the air all high Institutions designed,

And holding in awe, art, science and law, delivered the same to mankind.

To begin with: of old, Man went naked and cold whenever it pelted or froze,

Till we showed him how Feathers were proof against weathers; with that he bethought him of hose. And next it was plain that he in the rain was forced to sit dripping and blind,

While the reed-warbler swung in a nest with her young,

deep sheltered and warm from the wind.

So our homes in the boughs made him think of the house; and the swallows, to help him invent, Revealed the best way to economize clay, and bricks to combine with cement.

The knowledge withal of the carpenter's awl is drawn from the nuthatch's bill,

And the sand-martin's pains in the hazel-faced lanes instructed the mason to drill.

Is there one of the arts more dear to men's hearts, to the birds' inspiration they owe it,

For the nightingale's first sweet music rehearsed, prima donna, composer, and poet.

And whence arose love? Go ask of the dove, or behold how the titmouse unresting

Still early and late ever sings by his mate to lighten her labors of nesting.

Their bonds never gall, though the leaves shoot and Fall, and the seasons roll round in their course,

For their Marriage each year grows more lovely and dear, and they know not decrees of divorce.

WILLIAM JOHN COURTHOpe.

A CHILD'S QUESTION.

Do you ask what the birds say? The sparrow, the dove,
The linnet, and thrush say "I love and I love!

In the winter they 're silent, the wind is so strong;
What it says I don't know, but it sings a loud song.
But green leaves and blossoms, and sunny, warm weather,
And singing and loving all come back together.
But the lark is so brimful of gladness and love,
The green fields below him, the blue sky above,
That he sings, and he sings, and forever sings he,
“I love my Love, and my Love loves me."

S. T. COLERIDGE.

NAMES.

THERE'S Mr. Salmon, Roach, and Whale;
The Martins, Swifts, and Swallows;
The Wrens, the Ravens, Eagles, Doves;
And many Mr. Sparrows.

There's Mr. Badger, Grubb, and Lark;
The Rooks, Drakes, Swans, and Buzzards;
The Bullocks, Crows, and Nightingales;
Some Herrings, Sprats, and Mallards.

There's Mr. Gosling, Fish, and Fox;

The Peacocks, Moles, and Widgeons;
The Parrots, Cranes, and Partridges;
The Rabbits, Jays, and Pigeons.

There's Mr. Finch, Wolff, Chubb, and Stagg;
The Starlings, Kidds, and Perches;

The Condors, Crabbs, the Ruffs, the Reeves,
Some Beavers, Gulls, and Leeches.

V. S. MORWOOD.

THE DOG.

CUVIER ON THE DOG.

"The domestic dog," says Cuvier, "is the most complete, the most singular, and the most useful conquest that man has gained in the animal world. The whole species has become our property; each individual belongs entirely to his master, acquires his disposition, knows and defends his property, and remains attached to him until death; and all this, not through constraint or necessity, but purely by the influences of gratitude and real attachment. The swiftness, the strength, the sharp scent of the dog, have rendered him a powerful ally to man against the lower tribes; and were, perhaps, necessary for the establishment of the dominion of mankind over the whole animal creation. The dog is the only animal which has followed man over the whole earth."

A HINDOO LEGEND.

In the Mahabharata, one of the two great Hindoo poems, and of unknown antiquity, there is a recognition of the obligation of man to a dependent creature not surpassed in pathos in all literature.

We copy only such portions of the legend as bear upon this point.

The hero, Yudhistthira, leaves his home to go to Mount Meru, among the Himalayas, to find Indra's heaven and the rest he so much desired; and with him, "The five brothers set forth, and Draupadi, and the seventh was a dog that followed them."

On the way the Princess Draupadi perished, and, after

her, one brother after another, until all had died, and the hero reached his journey's end accompanied only by his dog.

Lo! suddenly, with a sound which rang through heaven and earth,

Indra came riding on his chariot, and he cried to the king, "Ascend!

Then, indeed, did the lord of justice look back to his fallen brothers,

And thus unto Indra he spoke, with a sorrowful heart: "Let my brothers, who yonder lie fallen, go with

me;

Not even unto thy heaven would I enter, if they were not there.

And yon fair-faced daughter of a king, Draupadi the all-deserving,

Let her too enter with us! O Indra, approve my prayer!"

INDRA.

In heaven thou shalt find thy brothers, - they are already there before thee;

There are they all, with Draupadi; weep not, then, O son of Bharata !

Thither have they entered, prince, having thrown away their mortal weeds,;

But thou alone shalt enter still wearing thy body of flesh.

YUDHISTTHIRA.

O Indra, and what of this dog? It hath faithfully followed me through;

Let it go with me into heaven, for my soul is full of compassion.