ll INR OF De Cn 1 ON,

of natural-history societies to the utmost, and doing so enlighten the minds of those who bave bitherto been
much in ignorance? With this spread of knowledge, mythical traditions such as that of the hibernation in
caves or under water of such a bird as our common Swallow (traditions not confined, as might be presumed,
to aremote country village, but which from time to time have found utterance from the lips of educated people)
will happily cease to exist; while the timid rustic, gradually freeing himself from the countless superstitions
connected with many of our birds, will no longer pause with bated breath when started at night by the not
very cheerful cry of the Screech-Owl. To be in the country and not to care to recognize or be able to
discriminate between the musical notes of the Thrush, the plaintive song of the Blackbird, the carol of the
Lark, or the exquisite lay of the Nightingale, is to me surprising; yet that such people exist is but too well
known. Shakespeare and our earlier poets duly appreciated, however, the varying melodies of our feathered
songsters, and have never been slow to accord to each its well-earned tribute of praise :—

“Tt was the nightingale, and not the lark,
That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear;
Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate tree ;
3elieve me, love, it was the nightingale.” —

Romeo and Juliet, act iii. scene 5.

Again :—
“The busy larke, messager of daye,
Salueth in hire song the morwe gray ;
And fyry Phebus ryseth up so bright,
That al the orient laugheth of the light.’”—
Cuaucer, Knightes Tale.
Or :—

‘‘ Hark how the cheerefull birds do chaunt theyr laies,
And carroll of loves praise.
‘The merry larke hir mattins sings aloft,
The thrush replyes, the mavis descant playes,
The ouzell shrills, the ruddock warbles soft ;
So goodly all agree with sweet consent
To this dayes merriment.” —
SPENCER, Epithalamion, 1595.
The study of natural history reveals to us a wide field, pregnant with interest and pleasure. The geologist,

who, from ‘arious aspects ee . . :
; the various aspects of nature, attempts to form a conception of how this planet has been formed,
and the naturalist, whose senses are keenly alte .
é aturalist, whose senses are keenly alive to the beauty and importance of the manifold living objects
which meet his 2 on Be fe
S gaze on every side, are pursuing a course calculated to lead to the highest and happiest

results. Even the eS oe :
the humble cottager who decorates his windows with flowers, and the artisan who keeps and
encourages his lj irds ee . 3 :
g S little birds to sing and to solace him, are imbued with tastes of a superior order, which, if
properly cultivated, ¢; al i ater :
perty ated, cannot fail to induce a greater intellectual development, and consequently an increase in
happiness. ;