And bade them call for nurture, and receive:
And lo! they call; the blackbird and the thrush,
The woodlark and the red-breast jointly call;
He hears, and feeds their feathered families;
He feeds his sweet musicians- nor neglects
Th'invoking ravens in the greenwood wide;

And tho' their throats coarse rattling hurt the ear,
They mean it all for music; thanks and praise
They mean, and leave ingratitude to man.*

But I must not forget to notice the appearance of the Beech in winter. Its leaves have now been shed, except those on some of the lower scrubby branches, which generally remain till the succeeding spring. Its trunk may then be seen, smooth in many places and appearing highly polished. Some I have seen standing to a height of forty or fifty feet from the ground to the first branch, looking like stately columns of marble. This has been the case where the trees have been thickly planted together. In general, however, the trunk of the beech is short, but of great thickit is impossible to see it without being struck with the effect it produces in forest scenery. The little, slight and pendulous branches which almost sweep the ground, are full of grace and lightness. When covered with a hoar frost they

ness;

* SMART.

† Some such trees may be seen not a great way from the clump of cedars in Richmond Park, below the terrace on the hill, and are well worth a little trouble in looking for them. They are on the bank to the left of the cedars, below Lord Erroll's house.

appear to great advantage. The beech has been called the Hercules and Adonis of our woods. Except perhaps those at Knowle and Burnham, there are few places where so many fine beeches are to be met with as in the Park and enclosures of Windsor.* They will amply repay the search necessary to find them out in many secluded haunts;

In Windsor's groves your easy hours employ.

The lovers of woodland scenery, and especially the admirers of this my favourite tree, will not find my descriptions exaggerated. Mr. White, of Selborne, calls them "the most lovely of forest trees," and other writers have dwelt on their grace and beauty. Many of the trunks are studded with projecting knobs and other excrescences, and sometimes appear fluted or grooved. There is something also in the bark, which is favourable to the growth of various mosses and lichens, which contrast well with the colour of the bark. The roots of the trees, too, are thrown out with great boldness, and when they appear above the ground, are generally covered with mosses of a beautiful soft green, differing in shade from those on the stem. When in this state they

In Sir John Filmer's estate, near Sittingbourne, in Kent; near Cuffnells, in the New Forest; and at Rose-Hill Park, near Winchester, are some Beech trees of magnificent size and great beauty.

are fine studies for a painter, especially when their brown or glowing orange foliage is contrasted with the more lasting green of the oak. Few artists have delineated forest scenery at this period of the year with happier effect than Mr. Starke, the Hobbima of England. He follows nature with so much truth, and pourtrays her on his canvas with so much effect and talent, that on looking at one of his pictures, I have almost fancied myself strolling in the wood, enjoying the tranquillity of its scenery, and exclaiming with the poet;

O lead me, guard me from the sultry hours,
Hide me, ye forests, in your closest bowers,
Where the tall oak his spreading arms entwines,
And with the beech* a mutual shade combines.†

* A friend of mine remarks, that Cæsar, in his commentaries, mentions, that he did not see the 'Fagus' in England: and yet Cæsar marched through the eastern part of Kent, where the Beech is indigenous. Did he mean the chesnut or a particular kind of oak, by the generic term of Fagus? The Italian poet, Fracastorius, who knew the niceties of the Latin language, seems to use the word 'fagus' for an oak,

Glandiferâ sub fago, aut castaneâ hirsutâ.

and perhaps by the word 'Fagus,' Cæsar meant the pnyos, or Quercus æsculus-the Italian oak,-which of course he did not meet with in Britain.

+ GAY.

It is common to find numbers of them lying dead in the fields and hedge-rows, without any apparent external injury. The cause of this general mortality does not appear to be understood. BELL'S QUADRupeds.

THERE are numerous little circumstances connected with the study of Natural History, which are not yet explained, and it certainly affords me some degree of gratification and pleasure, when I have discovered any fresh facts which throw light upon them. Persons who live much in the country, and are in the habit of making observations during their walks, must have seen, in the spring, numbers of the common Shrew-mouse lying dead in various directions. This circumstance has attracted the attention of many Naturalists, who, on making enquiries as to the cause of it, amongst their poorer neighbours and labourers, have had it accounted for in a variety of ways. Some have asserted that owls will kill, but not eat them, as the loins of the little animal have been found pinched as if by the beak of a bird. If this were the case, the wise and solemn owl might justly be liable to a charge of wanton cruelty, to say nothing of its waste of time during its nocturnal flights. The fact, however, is that the owl catches

and feeds on the shrew, as it does on any other mouse which comes in its way. Other persons have maintained that cats will kill this little quadruped, but that they always refuse to eat it, in consequence of a rank offensive smell which it is said to possess. I have however found dead

shrews far away from the haunts of cats, and they may now be fairly exonerated, like the owl, from this charge. The very circumstance, however, of this mystery in the history of the shrew, has given it a sort of importance amongst countrypeople, even in the present day, and many will not only refuse to touch it, but they even look upon it with dislike. They consider it to be venomous, and it was formerly thought that if it ran over a person's foot, he would become lame in consequence. Mr. White, in his History of Selborne, mentions a shrew-ash tree, which after having had a large hole bored in it, and a live shrew-mouse plugged up in it, was thought to be a remedy for the evils inflicted by this harmless animal. very name has been adopted as a term of reproach to a scolding woman, probably from the venom it was supposed to possess. Shakspeare, however, has now and then used it with terms of endearment

Pretty Jessica, like a little shrew.

Bless you, fair shrew.

Its

Wishing, however, to rescue this little quadruped