times been found dead on the shore, cast up by the waves.'

To the above excerpt from Wilson's account of the osprey, may be appended the lines which he wrote on this bird, which allude specially to the friendly feelings with which it is regarded by the fishermen on the Atlantic coast of the United States:

The osprey sails above the sound,

The geese are gone, the gulls are flying;
The herring-shoals swarm thick around,
The nets are launched, the boats are flying;
Yo, ho, my hearts! let's seek the deep,
Raise high the song, and cheerly wish her,
Still as the bending net we sweep,

'God bless the fish-hawk and the fisher!'

She brings us fish, she brings us spring,
Good times, fair weather, warmth and plenty,
Fine store of shad, trout, herring, ling,
Sheepshead and drum, and old-wives dainty,
Yo, ho, my hearts! let's seek the deep,

Ply every oar, and cheerly wish her,

Still as the bending net we sweep,

'God bless the fish-hawk and the fisher!'

She rears her young on yonder tree,

She leaves her faithful mate to mind 'em,
Like us, for fish, she sails to sea,

And, plunging, shows us where to find 'em.

Yo, ho, my hearts! let's seek the deep,
Ply every oar, and cheerly wish her,
While the slow bending net we sweep,
'God bless the fish-hawk and the fisher!'

CUVIER.

We must once more turn our attention to the Continent, in order to acquire a notion of the enormous impulse given to natural history, and the vast improvements effected in scientific zoology by the genius of the illustrious Cuvier. Georges Cuvier was born on the 23d of August 1769, at Montbéliard, in the department of Doubs, then belonging to Würtemberg. His father was a retired military man, and was descended from a Protestant family, which had been forced to emigrate from the Jura by the persecutions directed against the Huguenots. Georges Cuvier was a delicate and studious child, and early showed a marked predilection for natural history. When fourteen years old, he was placed at the academy of Stuttgart-the school of Schiller and of other well-known men-and after a brilliant career as a student, he entered the world to seek for his living, at the age of eighteen. A short space of time subsequent to his leaving the academy of Stuttgart was spent as 'sous-lieutenant' in the Swiss regiment of Châteauvieux; but this corps being disbanded, and his family being unable to give him any pecuniary assistance, he accepted the position of tutor in the family of the Comte d'Héricy, who