On the craggy ice, in the frozen air,

And only seeketh her rocky lair

To warm her young and teach them to spring
At once o'er the waves on their stormy wing!

O'er the deep! O'er the deep,

Where the whale, and the shark, and the swordfish sleep!
Outflying the blast and the driving rain,

The Petrel telleth her tale ;-in vain :
For the mariner curseth the warning bird,
Who bringeth him news of the storms unheard!
Ah! thus does the Prophet of good or ill
Meet hate from the creatures he serveth still;
Yet He ne'er falters :-so, Petrel! spring
Once more o'er the waves on thy stormy wing.

To these poetical verses we add the following, which cannot fail to be interesting to the christian mind.

THE PETREL.

The Petrel floats on the stormy foam,
While all around is drowning;

So the christian smiles in his tranquil home,
When earthly joys are frowning.

Where worldly ambition but finds a grave,
Hope rests on her downy pillow;
As the Petrel sleeps on the ocean wave,
While tosses the raging billow.

The blast is loud and the night is dark,
And chill are the restless surges;
Yet the christian floats on his lowly bark,
As buoyant his spirit emerges.

Earth weighs not down his elastic wing
That aspiring to heaven uprises;

His sorrows are joys, and his winter is spring,
And all life's blanks are prizes.

He is caged on earth, but he treads not its sod;
He spurns its confined dominions;

His soul is ethereal, he dwells with his God;
Heaven-plumed are his joyful pinions.

S. C. W.

The family ANATIDA comprehends the Swans, the Ducks, the Geese, and the Mergansers, birds to which in an especial manner the term "Wild Fowl" has been popularly given.

These birds are decidedly aquatic in their habits, and swim with ease and grace. On the land their gait is awkward and constrained. Their food consists of fishes, insects, shellfish, vegetables, and grain. Some avail themselves of their length of neck alone in order to obtain their subsistence, plunging the head below the surface of the water, and groping with their bills in the mud. Others dive to the bottom of lakes and shallow seas for the means of their subsistence; but all dive to escape pursuit. Some inhabit fresh water lakes and rivers, others exclusively the sea or salt water lakes; and most of them emigrate, following the larger rivers, and coasting the shores of the sea. Several are reclaimed by man, and are domesticated around his habitation, supplying him with food.

If we look at the contour of the birds of this group, we cannot but be struck with their fitness, their express adaptation, for the station and habits assigned them. We see, in the first place, a boat-like form of body, well clothed with an under vest of down, and an outward coat of smooth, varnished, or oily feathers which repel the water. We see the feet large, spreading, and webbed, terminating in short stout tarsi, more or less compressed. We see the neck long, and the beak large, broad, and flat, armed with a regular series of laminated teeth, to act as strainers, along the edge of each mandible. Added to all this, the muscular powers are considerable, and their flight, when they have attained a certain elevation in the atmosphere, rapid and capable of long continuance. Nor is there less adaptation in their internal structure; in those that feed on vegetable matters, we find the gizzard moderately strong and muscular, but in those (and it is the case with a large tribe of the Ducks) that feed on shell-fish, which they obtain at the bottom of the sea, the muscular walls of the gizzard are of very considerable thickness and power, and the interior is lined with a thick, tough, hard membrane; and all this their Creator has wisely ordered that the shells, with their nutritious contents, may be comminuted or ground to a pulp.

First, the Swans, (Cygnus.) The generic characters are as follows:-Bill, equally wide throughout its whole length, elevated at the base, and depressed towards the

tip, where a nail-like projection bends down over the tip of the lower mandible; the edges of both mandibles furnished with a series of transverse upright laminæ or plates, which are nearly hidden when the bill is closed; nostrils, oblong and lateral; neck, long; wings, long and ample; legs, short and placed far backwards, the toes before fully webbed, behind small and free; plumage, thick and close.

The food of these birds, preeminent among the Anatide for grace and elegance on their congenial element, consists principally of vegetable matter, such as grain, and the roots, stems, and leaves of aquatic plants; but never fish, as some have supposed. Three species are natives of Europe.

The TAME or MUTE SWAN (Cygnus Olor) is by far the most conspicuous for its beauty and the elegance of

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plumes of its wings proudly expanded like sails to catch the breeze, it arrests the attention and courts the admiration of every observer. In our island and the adjacent parts of the continent, this noble bird is known only in a state of more or less complete domestication; it is not strictly indigenous with us, though it breeds and remains on our rivers and ornamental sheets of water without attempting to depart.

In a wild state it abounds in the eastern portions of Europe and the adjacent parts of Asia, where inland. seas, vast lakes, and extensive morasses afford it food and a congenial home. In Siberia and on the shores of the Caspian Sea it resides in great multitudes; but, like most of the waterfowl, is migratory in its habits.

Gentle and inoffensive as it is, the muscular powers of the Swan render it, on the water, a formidable enemy when driven to act on the defensive; and it has been known to give successful combat to animals, and even man, when protecting its young.

The

The Swan makes her nest in the midst of reeds or osiers, near the water, and often on a small island; it is constructed of a mass of twigs or stalks, lined with feathers; the eggs are six or eight in number. young birds, or cygnets as they are termed, are covered universally with a grayish brown plumage, and do not acquire the white, in its purity, till the beginning of the third year.

Independent of its superior size, the Tame Swan is easily distinguished by its beak, which is throughout of an orange red, with the exception of the nail at the tip, the edges of the mandibles, the nostrils, and the naked cere at the base, which extends to the eye and rises in the form of a knob before the forehead. The male measures upwards of five feet, and more than eight in the expanse of wings; the weight is from twenty to twentyfive pounds, and sometimes more. The Swan is very longlived, often attaining to more than thirty years of age.

The beautiful down, so much prized when made up into articles of comfort or elegance, is the under-clothing of the whole of the lower surface of the body and the

neck; it is more thin, but not altogether absent, on the back. It cannot be seen when on the living bird, because it is covered by the outer plumage, which consists of large closely set feathers.

The song of the dying Swan, of which we have all heard, is, we need not say, a poetical fable. Perhaps, however, like many other fables, there may be a sort of foundation for it; for the voice of the Swan is low, soft, and murmuring, and when heard from multitudes congregated together, has a very pleasing effect.

The windpipe, or trachea, is a simple tube devoid of convolutions, and entering at once into the chest.

A

Distinguished from the Tame Swan, not indeed in general habits, but in size and several important anatomical characters, the WILD Swan, Hooper, or WHISTLING SWAN, (Cygnus ferus,) may be noticed. native of nearly the whole of the northern hemisphere, this stately bird is migratory, passing northwards as far as the borders of the arctic circle, to breed, and thence returning southward to winter, regulated by the severity of the season. In America, the emigrations of the Wild Swan are bounded by Hudson's Bay on the north, and extend southwards as far as Louisiana and the Carolinas. In Europe and Asia it extends its visits as far as the warmer latitudes, and some pass into the contiguous districts of Africa, especially Egypt. From this statement we may at once conceive that the present species is very widely distributed.

The Hooper may be regarded as a regular winter visitor to the Orkneys and Western Isles of Scotland; but its appearance in England is not so certain, and its migration farther southwards is entirely regulated by the severity of the weather. These journeys are performed in flocks of greater or less extent, the numbers being from five to fifty, or more; they take up their abode on lakes, rivers, or inundated fields, and are shy and wary. On the first opening of spring, they wing back their way to their northern breeding-places, scattering themselves