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that a bird which remains in North Britain all the year round should migrate from France during the winter months. Such, however, is the case: in France, the red-breast frequents the hedges and dwelling-houses, for a short time, in autumn and spring; but regularly in the dead of winter, when the hard frost commences, disappears. In his spring visit, he makes but a short stay, hasting, as he then is, to enter the forest, that he may there, amidst the spreading leaves, enjoy solitude and love.

The red-breast builds its nest at the foot of some thick shrub, or upon à tuft of grass able to support it. The materials of which it is composed are oakleaves, moss, and a bed of feathers within. Sometimes, after the edifice is finished, the bird covers it entirely over with leaves, allowing only a small passage to remain, sufficient to admit its body. During the season of nestling and incubation, the male makes the grove resound with his soft and melodious lays. His warbling is soothing and tender, animated occasionally with notes of a louder tone, and sometimes, too, graced with those touching and enagaging accents, that seem to express the ardour of his love. In the sweet society of his female, he seems to be wholly absorbed at the interference of other company, he becomes fretful and enraged; for no stranger is permitted to intermeddle with his joy: even those of his own species he pursues with rage, till he banishes them from the district he has chosen for himself. His love exhibits a strange mixture of jealousy and attachment.

The food of the red-breast varies with the season. In spring, he feeds upon insects and worms, which he pursues with address and nimbleness, in those moist and shady districts where he then resides. In autumn, he devours all kinds of seeds and fruits that are produced in the district, not excepting the apple and the grape.

There is no bird more active, none satisfied with a smaller portion of rest, than this bird: he is the first that appears in woods at the break of day, and the last that retires thither in the evening to enjoy repose. This species is spread over the whole of Europe, from Norway and Sweden, to the coast of the Mediterranean.

On hearing a ROBIN sing in CHURCH during Divine Service.
While grateful crowds their ready homage pay,
And heav'nly chauntings hail the sacred day—
While the loud organ's note responsive swells,
And the rapt soul in mute attention dwells—
Say, little robin, Winter's sweetest bird!
Shall thy small twitter waft its notes unheard?
Shall the pure offering of thy native song
Unheed pass the prouder strains among?

Ah, no! lone songstress, humble though thy note,
Though small the tribute of thy warbling throat;
Yet, in His eye, who marks the sparrow's fall,
Who, ever present, reigns the Lord of All;
To Him, the feeblest song, the simplest prayer,
To find an audit, needs but be sincere:
Nor 'midst the skilful tones of human art
Will he o'erlook the incense of the heart;
But ever deign to lend a gracious ear,

Thy hymns and mine, sweet moralist, to hear.

The hedge-sparrow (motacilla modularis) and the thrush (turdus musicus) now begin to sing. The wren, also, pipes her perennial lay,' even among the flakes of snow. The titmouse (parus) pulls straw out of the thatch, in search of insects; linnets (fringilla linota) congregate; and rooks (corvus frugilegus) resort to their nest trees. Pullets begin to lay; young lambs are dropped now. Spiders shoot out their webs; and the blackbird (turdus merula) whistles. The fieldfares, red-wings, skylarks, and titlarks, resort to watered meadows for food, and are, in part, supported by the gnats which are on the snow, near the water. The tops of tender turnips and ivy-berries afford food for the graminivo

rous birds, as the ringdove, &c. Earth-worms lie out on the ground, and the shell-snail (helix nemoralis) appears. On the utility of worms in manuring the soil, see T.T. for 1821, p. 27.

The house-sparrow (fringilla domestica) chirps. This bird not only builds its nest under the eaves of houses, but in the nests of other birds, and sometimes alone on the top or nearly the top of the Lombardy poplar.

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The bat (vespertilio) is now seen. Bats are very useful animals; destroying great numbers of the large white moths which fly abroad by night. Our Somersetshire correspondent informs us that he had a colony of bats over the entrance to his house. They generally continued abroad during the darkness of the night in the summer season, and returned to their abode on the approach of day. He was very careful that this colony should not be destroyed or disturbed. By turning down the lead, he could, at any time of the day, see great numbers of them; and he counted, early one morning in the summer, seventeen returning from their night's excursion. These animals appear particularly partial to lead roofs, hence their frequency about churches covered with lead.

In very severe winters, that beautiful bird, the Bohemian chatterer (ampelis garrulus), is sometimes found in this country.

The appearance which nature presents in the vegetable kingdom, at this season of the year, are scant indeed; yet, amid the general torpor, reviviscent signs appear, enough to invite our readers to enter upon the study of Botany, under the auspices of a New Year, which has ever been held favourable to fresh projects, and which are now undertaken with renewed ardour.-See some remarks in our last volume, pp. 21-23, 179-181.

The helleborus niger, or Christmas rose, as it is

commonly called, exhibits its pretty flowers at this season. If the weather be very mild and favourable, the garden crocus (c. vernus) puts forth its flower before the leaves are grown to their full length. As an agreeable contrast to this golden-coloured flower, the snowdrop (galanthus nivalis), formerly called "fair maids of February,' from its generally appearing in that month, often graces the last days of this. It is a modest and elegantly drooping flower.

The china rose (rosa chinensis and rosa semperflorens), till lately unknown to us, and at first considered only as a greenhouse plant, is now seen in blow in the open air, even in the month of December, often with its red buds mossed with frost.

In mild seasons there are many flowers in blow in the month of January; some we have enumerated in p. 24: to these may be added periwinkle (vinca, major & minor), heart's ease (viola tricolor)', and the delightful, sweet-smelling wall-flower (cheiranthus cheiri), to which we have a just tribute in this exquisite sonnet:

I HEART'S EASE: by W. Maxwell, an American Poet.
There is a charming little flow'r,
A charming flow'r it is;

The brightest gem in Flora's bow'r,
And sweet as Beauty's kiss.

There is no fragrance in its sigh,

To tempt the busy Bee;

It doesn't please the Butterfly,
But it is dear to me.

I love to see the little thing,

When Morning paints the skies,

Before the lark is on the wing,

Open its sparkling eyes.

Then, bright and fresh with shining dew,

It glitters to the ray,

With triple spots of various hue,

So fancifully gay.

This is the flow'r that I will wear,

That girls may cease to tease;

Its name is music to my ear,

What is it called?-Heart's Ease.

To the WALL-FLOWER,

I will not praise the often-flattered rose,

Or, virgin-like, with blushing charms half seen,
Or when in dazzling splendour, like a queen,
All her magnificence of state she shows;
No, nor that nun-like lily, which but blows
Beneath the valley's cool and shady screen;
Nor yet the sun-flower, that with warrior mien
Still eyes the orb of glory where it flows;--
But thou, neglected wall-flower, tô my breast
And muse art dearest, wildest, sweetest flower,
To whom alone the privilege is given

Proudly to root thyself above the rest
As genius does, and, from thy rocky tower,

Lend fragrance to the purest breath of heaven1.

Bees venture out of their hives every month in the year, and may occasionally be seen on some fine mild days in January, busily improving each shining hour' in gathering food from the snowdrops, &c.

The golden saxifrage, called also golden moss, and stonecrop (chrysoplenium), in the absence of other flowers, affords its little aid to give life and beauty to the garden. The bramble (rubus fruticosus) still retains its leaves, and gives a thin scattering of green in the otherwise leafless hedges; while the berries of the hawthorn, the wild rose, and the spindle-tree, afford their brilliant touches of red. The twigs of the red dog-wood, too, give a richness amid the general brown of the other shrubs. Ivy now casts its leaves.

The MINSTREL of the IVY TREE.
My garden-wall was old and bare,
I sought an oak with ivy crowned;
It had a straggling branch to spare;
I bore it to my garden ground.
Six summer suns their beams have shed,
And smiled upon my stolen guest:
The ivy to the wall is wed,

The Robin there has built his nest.

'Sixty-five Sonnets, &c., Baldwin and Co., 1818.

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