rene, then they sail about in tranquil enjoyment, and pursue their flight in perfect silence.

The female lays from eight to fifteen eggs, of an oblong form and an ashen red colour, with spots of blackish brown. The ptarmigan is so wary a bird, that it can rarely be lured into snares of any kind, and is therefore usually pursued with a fowling-piece. All attempts to hatch and rear it, in a domestic state, have been unsuccessful. Fitted to live in the pure air of mountainous elevations, it is scarcely likely that it should thrive amid the heavier atmosphere of the plains. In fact, it would seem almost as much out of its element in the warm and fertile vallies of the south, as does the camel from the deserts of Arabia contending with the cold climate and stony soil of the northern regions.

SONG OF THE PTARMIGAN.

'Mid eternal snows

I love to repose:

When the waters in icy fetters are bound,
In the chambers of snow my portion is found.
I lay up no store,

'Mid the mountains hoar,

I have but to open their marble door.

I delight to sail

In the icy gale;

But the gentle breeze of the balmy spring Would weaken the force of my snowy wing. Where the mountains rise

To the azure skies,

Amid the pure ether the ptarmigan flies.

Tho' the birds that feed

In the grove or mead,

May rejoice in the range of their lower flight; Yet the snowy crags of the Alpine height, And the mountain air,

So free and rare,

I would not exchange for their valleys fair.

Oh! bid me not roam

From my mountain home;

The rich harvests that load the fertile plain, With the luscious fruits and the golden grain, Are less to my mind

Than the berries I find,

Waving on high in the keen mountain wind.

'Mid eternal snows

I love to repose;

I build not my nest in the shelter'd vale, For my wing would flag in the southern gale. To the Alpine height

I take my flight,

And there I dwell in a world of light.

191

CHAPTER IV.

THE FIFTH ORDER.

WADERS, OR GRALLÆ,

Are named from their habits. They may be known by the nudity of the lower part of the legs, and, in general, by the height of their tarsi, circumstances which enable them to walk to a certain depth in the water without wetting their feathers, and thus to fish by means of their neck and bill, which are in general proportioned to the length of the legs. Those which have a strong bill, feed on fish and reptiles; those whose bill is weak, on worms and insects. very small number of them feed partially on grains and herbs, and these alone live at a distance from the water. Almost all these birds, if we except the ostriches and the cassowary, have long wings, and are good flyers; they stretch their legs behind them in flight, contrary to other birds, who fold them up.-Cuvier.

A

ORDER GRALLE.

The Common Sandpiper.

Tringa Hypoleucos.

THE common sandpiper is not numerous in England, but it is often seen during the summer

months, seeking its insect prey on the pebbly margin of our lakes and rivers. It leaves us in the autumn; but to what place it wings its flight has not, we believe, been noticed. There is something peculiarly sweet and musical in the clear piping cry of this elegant little bird, as it skims along the shores of some of the northern lakes ; the sound, on a still summer night, breaking at intervals on the ear, then dying away in the distance. These notes are rendered still more pleasing, by the circumstance of their being considered as certain indications of the continuance of fine weather, by the inhabitants of those districts in which the sandpiper takes up its summer abode.

In our island climate, it is always "a pleasant thing to behold the sun," and those sights and sounds of nature, which from their more frequent occurrence in warm and genial seasons, are supposed to foretel fine weather, are welcomed with cheerful, sometimes with almost affectionate feelings, by those whose amusements or employments lead them much into the open air.

The pretty scarlet pimpernel, with its appropriate name, the shepherd's weather-glass, though it brings not, like the song of the sandpiper, the hope of settled fine weather, is said only to expand its blossom in the morning, when no rain

falls during the day. Those who in childhood, at the commencement of an excursion in the country, have watched with anxiety for its beautiful, salver-shaped blossom and purple eye, will seldom pass it in their walks, without feeling as if they had been gladdened by the face of a kind and cheerful friend, wishing them a pleasant ramble, and promising the enjoyment of dry footpaths and sun-lighted prospects. The voice of such a friend, is that of the little sandpiper, to those who wander amidst the mountains of Westmoreland and Cumberland, or sail on their silver lakes.

THE SANDPIPER.

Gay little bird of the lake's green shores,
Thy sweet wild notes the wanderer hails,
In the ling'ring pauses of homeward oars,
Or the slow dull flapping of idle sails.

Night is hastening on ; but we hear thy song,
And the deep'ning shadows no more we see;
With light hearts now we are gliding along,
For the syren Hope, has sung with thee.

There is music that tells, in that piping cry,
Of joy and beauty a thousand tales,
Of glorious suns in the clear, bright sky,
That will gild our path among hill and vales.

K