is three inches long, and of a deep blue; and the eye of a hazel colour. In general, these birds are found in mountains and thinly inhabited countries; and breed among the loftiest cliffs. They choose those places which are remotest from man, upon whose possessions they but seldom make their depredations, being contented rather to follow the wild game in the forest, than to risk their safety to satisfy their hunger.

This fierce animal may be considered among birds, as the lion among quadrupeds; and, in many respects, they have a strong similitude to each other. They are both possessed of force, and an empire over their fellows of the forest. Equally magnanimous, they disdain small plunder; and only pursue animals worth the conquest, It is not till after having been long provoked, by the cries of the rook or the magpie, that this generous bird thinks fit to punish them with death. The eagle also disdains to share the plunder of another bird; and will take up with no other prey than that which he has acquired by his own pursuits. How hungry soever he may be, he stoops not to carrion; and when satisfied, never returns to the same carcase, but leaves it for other animals, more rapacious and less delicate than himself. Solitary, like the lion, he keeps the desert to himself alone; it is as extraordinary to see two pair of ea

gles in the same mountain, as two lions in the same forest, They keep separate, to find a more ample supply; and consider the quantity of their game as the best proof of their dominion. Nor does the similitude of these animals stop here: they have both sparkling eyes, and nearly of the same colour; their claws are of the same form, their breath equally strong, and their cry equally loud and terrifying. Bred both for war, they are enemies of all society; alike fierce, proud, and incapable of being easily tamed.

Of all the feathered tribe, the eagle flies the highest; and from thence the ancients have given him the title of the bird of heaven. He possesses also the sharpest sight; but his sense of smelling, though acute, is inferior to that of a vulture. He never pursues, but when his object is in view, and having seized his prey, he stoops from his height, as if to examine its weight, always laying it on the ground before he carries it off. He finds no difficulty in taking up geese and cranes. also carries away hares, lambs, and kids; and often destroys fawns and calves, to drink their blood; and bears a part of their flesh to his retreat. Infants themselves, when left unattended, have been destroyed by these rapacious creatures. An instance is recorded in Scotland, of two children having been carried

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off by eagles; but fortunately they received no hurt by the way; and, the eagles being pursued, the children were found unhurt in the nests, and restored to the affrighted parents.

The eagle is thus at all times a formidable neighbour; but peculiarly so when bringing up its young. It is then that the male and female exert all their force and industry to supply their offspring. Smith, in his history of Kerry, relates, that a poor man in that country got a comfortable subsistence for his family, during a summer of famine, out of an eagle's nest, by robbing the eaglets of food, which was plentifully supplied by the old ones. He protracted their assiduity beyond the usual time, by clipping the wings, and retarding the flight of the young; and very probably also, as I have known myself, by so ty. ing them, as to increase their cries, which are always found to increase the parent's dispatch to procure them provision. It was fortunate, however, that the old eagles did not surprise the countryman thus employed, as their resentment might have been dangerous.

It requires great patience and much art to tame an eagle; and even though taken young, and subdued by long assiduity, yet it is a dan. gerous domestic, and often turns its force against its master.

It is said that the eagle can live many weeks

without food; and that the period of its life exceeds a hundred years.

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The Humming Bird.`

Or all the birds that flutter in the garden, or paint the landscape, the humming-bird is the most delightful to look upon, and the most inoffensive. Of this charming little animal, there are six or seven varieties, from the size of a small wren, down to that of an humble-bee. An European would not readily suppose that there existed any birds so very small, and yet so completely furnished with a bill, feathers, wings, and intestines, exactly resembling those of the largest kind. Birds not so big as the end of one's little finger, would probably be supposed mere creatures of imagination, were they not seen in infinite numbers, and as frequent as butterflies in a summer's day, sporting in the fields of America, from flower to flower, and extracting sweets with their little bills.

The smallest humming-bird is about the size of a hazel-nut. The feathers on its wings and tail are black; but its body, and under its wings, are of a greenish brown, with a fine red cast or gloss, which no silk or velvet can imitate. It has a small crest on its head, green at the bottom, and as it were gilded at the top; and which sparkles in the sun like a little star in