seize it as his prey. A sportsman holds these gulls in abhorrence, for so great are their powers of flight, that they will dart down on wounded birds, and destroy them before his very eyes. The great black-backed and herring-gulls will sometimes also pursue individuals of their own species, to make them deliver up choice food, too large to be immediately swallowed. They occasionally give each other severe chases, each trying to be uppermost. If the first drop the food, this is picked up by the second, which in its turn becomes the pursued.1 To the Blackbacked gull, the offal of the beach, the body of a dead pig, or the carcase of a dead horse, furnishes an acceptable banquet. herring-gull, the carrion crow, the grey crow, and the raven, have been seen sociably to partake of the same repast. Dogs would occasionally present themselves, and, without formality, take a share of the feast; but at such times the two large gulls would walk off to a little distance, in a manner that evinced their displeasure at the intrusion. They would never condescend to eat in the society of dogs! crows. caves. The The great breeding-haunt of gulls in my neighbourhood (Belfast) is a ledge of basaltic rocks, about two hundred feet in height, a few miles to the north of our bay. In 1849, it was estimated that so many as a thousand pair of Herring-gulls had their nests there. So also had guillemots, puffins, jack-daws, and hooded The rock-pigeon and the green cormorant build in its The peregrine falcon and the kestrel hawk there construct their eyries, and under the ledges of the rocks the house-martin suspends its "pendant nest and procreant cradle.” The cliffs, bare and bleak as they are at other times, are then decorated with luxuriant tufts of the sea-pink, and other wild-flowers that love to nestle on the ledges and in the fissures of the precipice. It seems as if the sternest scene assumed a graceful and varied costume, in honour of the gentle cares of its feathered visitants during the period of incubation. The whole range of cliffs at that time is animated with bird-life, and musical with their varied notes. If a gun be fired, hundreds of birds dart into the air, uttering screams of terror; these soon subside, and we again hear only the 1 Vide Thompson, Nat. Hist. of Ireland. I am glad to have had the opportunity of introducing into a book intended for schools, some passages from the publications of my lamented friend, the late William Thompson, Esq. He had himself hoped to have made them available for the instruction of the young. modulated cries and notes, which reach the ear softened by distance, and blend harmoniously with the sound of the waves as they break upon the base of the precipice. When last I visited the spot, several very young birds-the broods of herring-gulls— were swimming fearlessly about, imparting an additional charm to the scene. Birds, like quadrupeds and man himself, belong to the group of animals termed Vertebrata. They are so named from their having a skull and back-bone or vertebral column. SHELLS, AND THEIR BUILDERS. "I have seen A curious child applying to his ear To which in silence hushed, his very soul Listened intensely, and his countenance soon Brightened with joy; for murmuring from within Were heard sonorous cadences, whereby, To his belief, the monitor express'd Mysterious union with its native sea."-WORDSWORTH. How very pleasant it is to stroll along the beach, and feel the refreshing sea-breeze on your cheek, and the sound of the ripple in your ears! One afternoon I was obliged to forego this gratification, for a strong inblowing gale, which had continued during the entire day, was still unabated. Next evening, however, I walked along the shore with a group of merry children, picking up the shells, zoophytes,1 and sea-weeds, which the waves had cast upon the strand. Among them were some soft yellowish masses, varying from the size of a child's hand to that of a child's head. Each was composed of a number of regular shaped cells, which at a little distance reminded one of an empty honeycomb, or of the interior of a wasp's nest. Yet a second glance showed that there was no real likeness either in shape or in material. The cells of the bee and of the wasp are hexagonal, those were somewhat roundish in outline, but flat at one side and convex at the other. The bee forms her cells of wax secreted between the rings of her body; 1 Marine productions belonging to the animal kingdom, but, in many cases, having the aspect of vegetables. 4 the wasp forms hers of a kind of paper made from vegetable fibres collected by her for the purpose ;-but these sea-born cells were membranous and tough. By what creature were they fashioned? For what use were they intended? They were deposited by the whelk or "buckie;" they had contained the young, and the hole was visible in each through which they had escaped. It was strange to think that each of these little capsules had been the nursery in which some four or five young "buckies" had passed their infancy, and from which they had gone forth into the world of waters around. It may be mentioned, as one of the countless examples of Providential care, that at this period of life, when we would suppose them to be most helpless, they are furnished with organs by which they can swim freely about-a power which, as you all know, they do not possess when more mature. 1. THE WHELK.-My little party soon picked up two or three empty shells of the whelk, showing the appearance it presented at successive ages; and ere long a shell of full size was found near low-water mark, with its owner in full activity and vigour. We could see that the shell had been enlarged from time to time to suit the increasing bulk of its inmate; and he must, of course, have acted as his own architect and builder, for such dwellings are never "built by contract," and never change in fashion. On this point my little companions inquired no further. They sought not to know how the shelly matter was secreted, or by what organ it was deposited. What use was made of the whelk was a subject in which they took a more lively interest; and they added queries about where and how it was taken. The replies were much to the following purport. "The common whelk is universally distributed around the British shores, varying greatly in its characters, however, according to locality. It is collected and taken in lobster-creels or baskets, for bait or food; great numbers are constantly exposed for sale in London, simply boiled, to be eaten with a little vinegar and pepper; a poor man's delicacy, but by no means a wholesome morsel." 1 It was not always, however, a dainty dish for the poor man only, but appeared at banquets of the rich and powerful. Thus we are told by Dr. Johnston, that at the enthronization feast 1 Hist. of British Mollusca. Van Voorst. At of William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1504, no fewer than eight thousand whelks were supplied at five shillings for a thousand. The great extent to which the whelk is used in some places for bait, may be judged of by the fact stated by a late well-known naturalist, James Wilson, Esq., of Edinburgh. Portpatrick, it is caught for this purpose in baskets,"containing pieces of fish, which are let down in about ten fathoms' water, about a quarter of a mile off the harbour or the old castle, and are drawn up daily to be emptied of the shell-fish which have crept into them to feed on the dead fish. Each shell serves to bait two hooks, so that, reckoning the number of hooks used by all the boats at 4500, about 2250 of these large shell-fish must be destroyed every time the lines are shot, and probably not fewer than 70,000 every year. Yet the supply, chiefly obtained from a space of no great extent, seems to be even more abundant than ever." While the whelk is directly and indirectly the means of giving a supply of food to man, let us see how he gains his own livelihood. To him any kind of decaying animal body furnishes a feast. We have seen how his eagerness to prey on the dead fish lures him to his destruction. But this is not his only way of " making a living." More fortunate than many other epicures, he has "two strings to his bow." When such odoriferous viands as those with which the basket is baited, are not to be had, or he chooses to have a change of diet, he turns with cannibal eyes to some of his molluscan brethren. But how is he to get at the fleshy body which is protected by a shell in some cases as strong as his own? To starve the garrison into surrender is impossible; how can it be taken by assault? The weapon employed is of a peculiar kind, but most effectual; it is a flexible proboscis enclosing a tongue! This tongue is armed with a hundred rows of formidable silicious teeth. Unlike the clumsy instruments made by human hands, it can do the work of distinct tools; it can serve for an auger, or it can be used as a file. Thus armed, the whelk breaks through the shell of his victim, and secures his prey. He is, of course, a carnivorous or flesh-eating animal. 2. THE LIMPET.-The common limpet, on the contrary, is a vegetable feeder; his pastures are the growing sea-weeds of the rock on which he rests. As he is not gifted, however, with the complex stomachs of the ruminating animals, he requires some simple apparatus to rasp down the sea-weed, and render it fit for digestion. And this he has in a tongue, which is nearly twice as long as his body, and furnished with a formidable array of hornylooking teeth, most of them curved, and well adapted for acting on the sea-weed. Children of all ages like to put everything they can to the test of more than one of the senses if possible. It was natural, therefore, that my vivacious body-guard should not rest satisfied with being told about these tongues, but should desire to see that both the whelk and the limpet had really tongues; and also, that the teeth, which had such different functions to perform, showed a corresponding difference in number, form, and arrangement. Accordingly, we secured two whelks and two limpets, and carried them home for examination under the microscope. When "set up" on a glass slide in the usual way, with a little Canada balsam, the tongues of these molluscs, and of others belonging to the same class, are very beautiful and interesting objects. The most careless observer cannot but be struck with their beauty and diversity; with their perfection, which attests the hand of the Divine Creator; and with the abundance of teeth, as evincing his providential care for every one of his creatures, however lowly.1 These lingual teeth are formed of flint, and are indestructible in acid. In general, they are amber-coloured or glassy, but some are not so. Their shape is greatly modified in the several groups. Sometimes they bear a resemblance to the bill-hook with which the farmer trims his hedges, the sickle with which he reaps his corn, or the scythe with which he mows his meadows. Others remind one of mathematical figures, such as the parallelogram; and some can only be compared to hooks or to saws. But so great is the diversity, that instead of any of these figures, we sometimes see only a series of symmetrical and interlacing curves. The pleasure my own family took in examining the tongue of the limpet induced me to show it to the children of a school; but as only one could see it at one time, I made a coarse drawing of it, on a large scale, so that all the children might see it at once. Great was the interest it excited; and it convinced me that few lectures would be more useful than those which would communicate to children round our coast, in clear and simple language, some elementary knowledge of the common sea-side objects that they meet with every day. Such lectures should be short-fifteen or twenty minutes would be sufficient-and one thing only should be taught in each. Those who have never spoken to children on such subjects can scarcely imagine how eagerly such information is received; nor how bright and happy is then the circle of little faces. B |