which forms the sides of the building. She always lays two eggs and no more, and she straddles on the nest while her long legs hang down, one on each side into the water. It is some time before the young ones can fly, but they run with surprising swiftness. They are occasionally caught, however, and are very easily tamed.

When seen smoothly gliding along the water, displaying a thousand graceful attitudes, no bird can exceed the swan in beauty and majesty of appearance. Its form is light and easy, and its motions are natural and pleasing. But on the wing its motions are awkward, its neck is stretched forward with an air of stupidity, and it appears indeed only like a large sort of goose.

This bird has long been rendered domestic, and it is a doubt whether there be any of the tame kind now in a state of nature. The colour of the tame swan is entireIv white, and its weight is generally full twenty pounds. Under the feathers is a very thick soft down, which is

made an articles of commerce, for purpose both of use and ornament.

The chief food of this bird is corn, bread, herbs growing in the water, and roots and seeds which are found near the margin. Its nest is composed of water plants, long grass and sticks. The Swan lays seven or eight white eggs, one every other day, much larger than those of a goose, with a hard shell. For some months after leaving the shell, the young are ash-coloured. It is rather dangerous to approach the old ones when their little family are feeding around them. A female has been known to attack and drown a fox which was swimming towards her nest; and an old Swan can break the leg of a man with a single stroke of its wing.

Swans were formerly held in very great esteem in England. At present they are not valued for the delicacy of their flesh, but numbers are still preserved for their beauty. Many may be seen on the river Thames, where they are considered the property of the king, and it is accounted felony to steal their eggs. The Swan is a long lived bird, and sometimes attains the age of more than a hundred years.

The Wild or Whistling Swan, though so strongly resembling this in colour and form, is yet a very different bird. It is much smaller and is of a very different form within. The colour of the tame Swan is entirely white; the wild bird has the back and wing-tips of ash colour. The tame Swan is mute, the wild one has a sharp loud cry. The wild species is found in most northern regions.

The Black Swan is a native of New Holland, and is a bird which the ancients immagined could not possibly have an existence. It resembles the Swan of the old world in form, but is somewhat smaller. Every part of its plumage is perfectly black.

This is a large, heavy fish, usually found from sixty to seventy feet in length. The fins on each side are from five to eight feet, composed of bones and muscles, and sufficiently strong to give speed and activity to the great mass of body which they move. The tail is about twenty-four feet broad, and is exceedingly flexible; its blow is tremendous.

The skin of the whale is smooth and black, and in some places marbled with white and yellow. The cleft of the mouth is above twenty feet long; and the upper jaw is furnished with barbs, that lie, like the pipes of an organ, the greatest in the middle and the smallest on the

sides. These compose the substance called whale-bone, and are very different from the real bones of the animal which are hard, very porous, and filled with marrow. The tongue is fixed to the lower jaw, and seems one great lump of fat. The eyes are no larger than those of an ox, and are placed towards the back of the head.

The fidelity of these animals to each other almost exceeds belief. A story is told of some fishes who struck one of two whales, a male and a female, that were in company. The wounded fish made a long and terrible resistance : and with a single blow of the tail swept a boat with three men in it to the bottom. The other still attended its companion, and lent it every assistance. At length, the fish that was struck sunk under its wounds; and its faithful associate, with great bellowing, refusing to desert its body, shared its fate.

Two of these boats some distance from As soon as a whale

The manner of taking whales at present is as follows: Every ship is provided with six boats, to each of which belong six men for rowing the boat, and a harpooner whose business it is to strike the whale. are kept constantly on the watch at the ship, fastened to pieces of ice. is perceived, both the boats set out in pursuit of it, and if either of them can come up before the whale finally descends, the harpooner discharges his harpoon at him.

As soon as the whale is struck, the men set up one of their oars on the middle of the boat as a signal to those in the ship. On perceiving this, the watchman alarms all the rest with the cry of fall! fall! upon which all