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renew their eternal warfare with the billows.

It

is to this Milton alludes in the following quaint but beautiful lines, from his unrivalled Ode on the Nativity.

"The winds with wonder whist,

Smoothly the waters kist,

Whispering new joys to the mild ocean,

Who now hath quite forgot to rave,

While birds of calm sit brooding o'er the charmed wave."

The flight of the kingfisher is extremely rapid. Destined to live by destroying other creatures, its leading characteristics are patience, perseverance, and courage. Perched on a slight branch overhanging a stream, it will remain a great length of time waiting the passage of its prey beneath. Sometimes moving rapidly along the banks, it detects the fish with its keen glance, and seizes them with the utmost dexterity. The eagerness with which it darts into the water after its prey, is quite extraordinary. At other times it will skim swiftly over the surface of the water, uttering a sharp cry, and seizing such fish as may come within its reach.

Cuvier thus describes the bird: "The European kingfisher is as large as a sparrow: greenish above, waved with black: a broad band of the finest aqua-marine blue prevails along the back.

The under part, and a band on each side the neck are reddish."

This, however, is not an accurate description of the kingfisher which frequents our streams, and which has no black on any part of its plumage.

THE KINGFISHER.

Did you never the royal kingfisher see,
Resting himself on the willow tree?
Lightly he sits on the bending spray,
And watches the course of his finny prey;
Then swiftly he skims o'er the crystal stream,
And his wings with azure and emerald gleam.
The king of the fishing tribe is he,
And he is clad right royally.

The emerald shines on his kingly head,
And his corset is of ruby red :

An emerald mantle is on his back,
Varied with waves of ebon black;

And a lovely band of the brightest blue,
Gives to the whole a glorious hue.

The king of the fishing tribe is he,
And he is clad right royally.

Perhaps you love, with your rod in hand,
By the flowing stream to take your stand;
Perhaps you have long an angler been,
As well as the bird in azure and green :
But whether your craft be old or new,
He will have better sport than you.
The king of the fishing tribe is he,
And he can fish right royally.

164

CHAPTER II.

THE THIRD ORDER.

SCANSORES OR CLIMBERS.

This order is composed of birds whose external toe is directed backwards, like the thumb, whereby they have a more solid support, of which some of the genera avail themselves, by hanging and climbing on the trunks of trees. Hence they have been named, in common, climbers, (scansores ;) although, strictly speaking, the term does not apply to them all; and many birds climb without belonging to this order, by the arrangement of the toes, as the creepers and nuthatches.

The birds proper to this order build, in general, in holes

of old trees. Their flight is middling. Their food, like that of the Passeres, consists of insects and fruits, according as their bill is more or less strong. Some, as the woodpeckers, have peculiar means of obtaining their food.-Cuvier.

ORDER SCANSORES.

The Green Woodpecker.

Picus Viridis.

THIS is one of those shy birds which is not very often seen, except by those whose business or

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