FACTS FOR LITTLE FOLKS.

STRUCK BY LIGHTNING.-Almost every summer some person is killed by taking shelter under trees in thunder-storms. This summer, a little girl, who was at work with her mother in the fields near Worksop, ran under a large elm tree in a storm, and was observed leaning against it. After a flash she was seen to fall, and when they ran to her she was dead-killed by a stroke of the electric fluid, which the tree under which she was standing had drawn down upon her! Let all my young readers sooner get wet through with rain, than run under a tree for shelter in a thunder-storm. Now will you remember, or forget?

THE DOOR OF A RAILWAY CARRIAGE was left unfastened, and a child two years old having been allowed by the mother to play on the floor, it fell upon the railway near Arbroath, while the train was going at the rate of twenty-five miles an hour. The mother was in despair; but presently two boys brought the child to Colliston station: they had found it tottering along the rails, crying, but almost unhurt by the fall.

TWO BROTHERS, ten and twelve years of age, were bathing this summer. One of them got beyond his depth, and cried out for help; and his brother, in trying to save him, sunk also, and both were drowned! Boys should not bathe in rivers where there may be deep places.

A LITTLE BOY'S FAITH.-A little boy, who had been lost in a dense forest, and was out all night, gave the following account of his conduct at the approach of darkness :-" It grew dark, and I kneeled down and asked God to take care of little Jonny, and then went to sleep."

GROUSE ON THE MOORS.

THERE are vari

ous kinds of

these beautiful birds. They

were once nu

merous in this island, but they are almost confined to Scot

land, a few only being now found on the northern moors of England. The picBut we

ture is of the gray hen of the Black Cock. will mention the various kinds of grouse.

The Wood-Grouse, or Cock of the Wood, for strength, size, and beauty, was once the noblest of the British game-birds, abounding in the pine forests of Scotland; it is now exceedingly rare, if not extinct. The male is nearly three feet in length, and weighs sometimes fifteen pounds. The upper

parts are brown, black, and grey, varied; the lower, black, interspersed with white feathers; the fore part of the breast is of a rich glossy green, with a golden tinge. The female is considerably less than the male, and is of a brown colour, with black crescent-shaped markings. They are now found in the forests of Russia, Norway, and Sweden, where they feed on the young shoots and cones of the pine, the catkins of the birch, and berries of the juniper. About the beginning of February, the male, perched on the top of some tree, with his neck stretched out, the feathers of his head erected, his wings hanging down about his feet, and his tail extended, calls his females around him, and his coarse notes of love are replied to by an amorous croaking, by no means melodious; but so soon as incubation begins, he skulks away to renew his plumage, and leaves the hen to hatch and rear her progeny. They are often domesticated in Sweden, and become so tame as to feed out of the hand, and like common hens, will run forward when corn is thrown to them. Attempts have been lately made to reintroduce them into our Scottish woods. It is extremely shy, but when intruded on will attack those who approach its place of resort with great boldness, and stationing himself on the ground, will peck at the legs and feet of

such as have disturbed its domain.

The flesh of

this bird is delicious, and its eggs have a delicate flavour beyond those of any other fowl.

The Common Black Grouse, or Black Cock, is nearly two feet in length, and weighs forty-eight ounces. The plumage of the male is of a fine glossy black, with a bluish tinge, wanting on the under parts; the secondary wing feathers are tipped with white, which form a white bar across them; the under-tail coverts are altogether white; the tail itself is forked, having the feathers bending outwards. The female is smaller, clothed in a brownish gray garb, barred and mottled with black; and the fork of the tail is slightly seen. The favourite abodes of this species are the hilly steep tracks, where the ravines are covered with deep fern, and strewed with the birch-bush, hazel, willow, and elder, whose young shoots and berries afford them, in their season, a sufficiency of food. About the end of January or February, if the weather be mild, the strongest male, selecting some elevated situation, drives from it every rival, though not without many a battle; and as the spring advances, displays all its arts to allure the females, beginning almost before day-dawn to make the hill side echo his murmuring calls of love. These are soon responded to by the females, who