And there is another bird worth looking at, as it rises from among the rushes. It is a snipe. Its first movements are irregular and zig-zag, it then suddenly mounts aloft, and its descent is abrupt. This wellknown bird dwells on our island, changing its situation from spot to spot, as the weather may render it necessary. During the autumn and winter, snipes, scattered over the low lands, frequent marshes, bogs, and rushygrounds, which they forsake when the ground is covered with snow, or the frost is severe. Then they repair to the fountain-heads of rivulets, and to springs whose temperature preserves them from being bound by the ice. As the spring sets in about March, earlier or later, according to the weather, they mostly retire to the more elevated moorland tracts, and prepare for nestbuilding. A few, however, remain to breed on the marshes or fenny lands of the lower and more southern parts of the island. The piping call of the male bird, always uttered on the wing, may now be heard. At times this sound is accompanied by a humming noise, supposed to be produced by a peculiar action of the wings. Whenever it occurs, the snipe descends with great velocity, and a trembling motion of the pinions. In winter the number of our native snipes is increased from Norway, and other high regions of the continent. These often appear in great flights on our coasts, whence they disperse themselves over the more inland counties. The woodcock, which only tarries here occasionally to breed, departs in March for the higher latitudes of Sweden and Norway. There these birds are very abundant, and their eggs are collected in thousands as a delicacy for the table. The ravages thus made among them, are supposed to account for their visiting us in smaller numbers than formerly. In the structure of the two birds just mentioned, we have a beautiful display of Divine wisdom and goodness. Each of their bills has a tissue of nerves distributed over it, and particularly at its extremity, which is covered with a soft pulpy skin or substance, in which these nervous fibres are found in vast numbers. How sensitive, therefore, is the bill! It is also provided with certain muscles, which expand the tips of both jaws in such a manner as to enable them, when inserted into the soft mud, to lay hold of the worm or insect which they feel, and draw it forth. Thus the snipe and the woodcock are able to feel the prey they cannot see, to detect it among the various things which the mud contains, and fully to secure it. In the course of March, the lapwing, or pewit, returns in small flocks to the moorland tracts, in order to breed. The pairing season with them has already commenced. During this period, their flight, particularly that of the males, is peculiar. It includes a variety of movements, in the course of which they dart upwards, sweep round, descend, and whirl rapidly about, their wings being so strongly and quickly agitated as to produce a whistling or hissing noise. About the same time, our native birds, the red grouse, breed on the heath-covered hills and moors. The nest, if it deserve the name, consists of a few withered stems of heath or grass, placed as a lining in a shallow cavity of the ground on the heath. On this, eight, ten, or twelve eggs of a greyish white, and blotched with brown, are laid. The brood, when hatched, are taken under the care of both parents. The wild duck pairs in March. The male and female continue together till the latter begins the task of incubation, when she is left to herself. The male deserting her, joins others of his own sex, and these form flocks by themselves. The care of the young is undertaken by the female alone. The wild pigeon coos in the woods. Domestic poultry lay eggs and sit. With what joy does the hen announce that an egg has been laid! Nor does she exult alone; others join in the shout, and it sometimes extends from one homestead to another, as if something very extraordinary had occurred. Now the pastures are enlivened by lambs. When the wind is still, and the weather warm and sunny, |