THE Monumental Church, at Richmond, was erect-atre, will not, we trust, be considered out of place. ed in 1813, on the spot where the theatre stood. It It is compiled from the Rev. Timothy Alden's colwas dedicated on the 4th of May, 1814. The Rev. lection of American epitaphs and inscriptions, a rare W. H. Wilder delivered the dedication sermon. It and valuable work.

is an elegant edifice of an octagon form. The On Thursday night, the 26th of December, 1811, steeple, on the northeasterly side, is one hundred it appears that the theatre, on Shockoe hill, in and thirty feet high. On the northwesterly side of Richmond, was attended by an unusual number of the church, and adjoining it, is the monument, the people. The pantomine, entitled Agnes and Rayfoundation of which occupies thirty-six feet square, mond, or the Bleeding Nun, was to have closed the within the walls of which is engraved the following amusements of the evening. This had been transinscription :lated for the occasion by Mr. Giradin; and many,

"In memory of the awful calamity, that by the who had seldom repaired to this place of recreation, providence of God, fell on this city, on the night of now attended in order to witness its performance, the 26th of December, in the year of Christ, 1811; principally through civility to their fellow-citizen. when, by the sudden and dreadful conflagration of In the first act of this afterpiece, one of the scenes the Richmond theatre, many citizens, of different exhibited the cottage of a robber, which was illumiages, and of both sexes, distinguished for talents and nated by a chandelier. When the curtain fell on for virtues, respected and beloved, perished in the the close of the first act, and before it rose for the flames; and, in one short moment publick joy and second, this chandelier was raised aloft among the private happiness were changed into Universal oil-painted scenery. By a fatal inattention, the lamp lamentation; this monument is erected, and the ad- was not extinguished! The fire instantly caught, joining church dedicated to the worship of Almighty spread with rapidity, and, in less than five minutes, God, that, in all future times, the remembrance of the whole roof, as well as the suspended combustithis mournful event, on the spot where it happened, ble materials, was in a blaze. "It burst through the and where the remains of the sufferers are deposit- bull's eye in front; it sought the windows where the ed, in one urn, may be united with acts of penitence rarified vapour sought its passage, fed by the vast and devotion." column of air in the hollows of the theatre, fed by The perspective view of the Monumental Church, the inflammable panels and pillars of the boxes, by from which the engraving presented in this number the dome of the pit, by the canvass ceiling of the of the Magazine is taken, was drawn by William lower boxes, until its suffocated victims in the front Strickland, F. S. A. Isaac Sturtevant, of Boston, were wrapped in its devouring flame, or pressed was the master builder. to death under the smoking ruins of the building." The imagination may better paint, than the pen of

An account of the burning of the Richmond The-
VOL. I-31

the writer describe, the unutterable anguish of the gay assembly. In one moment, hilarity and joy were exchanged for the most agonizing sorrow and distress, and a multitude of precious and immortal souls, at a time they little expected, was plunged into the world of spirits. Shrieks, groans, agony, and death, in its most terrifick form, closed the tragick scene!

The following is a list of the unhappy victims to this dreadful calamity, taken from the Gazettes published at the time, and corrected by the writer of this article in May, 1814, from verbal information received of sundry people at Richmond :

From Jefferson ward, his excellency, George W. Smith, governour of Virginia, Miss Sophia Tourin, Miss Cecilia Tourin, sisters, Joseph Jacobs and his daughter, Miss Elizabeth Jacobs, Cyprian Marks, Mrs. Marks, the wife of Mordecai Marks, Miss Charlotte Raphael, daughter of Solomon Raphael, Miss Adeline Bausman, Miss Ann Craig, Mr. Nuttal, a carpenter, Pleasant, a mulatto woman, and Nancy Peterson, a woman of colour.

NATURAL HISTORY.

From Monroe ward, Mrs. Taylor Braxton, Mrs. Elizabeth Page, Mrs. Jerrod, James Waldon, Miss Elliot, of New Kent, Mrs. Joseph Gallego, Miss Sarah Conyers, James Gibbon, Esq., lieutenant in the Navy of the United States, Mrs. Thomas Wilson, Miss Maria Nelson, Miss Mary Page, Mrs. Laforest, and Mr. Almerine Marshall, of Wythe county.

To the foregoing, these are also to be added: Miss Elvira Coutts, Mrs Pickit, Miss Littlepage, Jean Baptiste Rozier, Thomas Lecroix, and Robert Ferrill, a mulatto boy.

Many, who escaped with their lives, were much scorched in the flames, some were killed and others were greatly injured by throwing themselves from the windows, or by being trampled under foot in the attempt to escape with the crowd. Mrs. John Bosher, and Edward James Harvey, Esq., expired, soon after the dreadful catastrophe. Some are cripples, a considerable number has dropped into the grave, and others languished under the weight of disease, in consequence of injury sustained at the time of the melancholy conflagration. Am. Mag.

The mob hath many hears but no brains.

THE JAVANESE PEA-FOWL. mono
Pavo Javanicus. HORSF.

We are indebted to Asia for the most magnificent as well as the most useful of our gallinaceous birds. All the different species of fowls from which our domestick breeds originally sprung, together with the pheasants and peacocks that ornament our aviaries and museums, have been procured from the eastern parts of that continent, where they still exist in a state of nature, displaying their gorgeous plumage to

of Africa, extending southward even to the Cape of
Good Hope. It is rarely met with in inland coun-
tries except on the banks of the larger rivers; but is
by no means uncommon during the season on the
coasts of the great extent of country which it em-
braces in its visits. In England, it is now but an
occasional visiter. Its size is less than that of the
wild goose, its entire length from the extremity of
the beak to the tip of the tail not exceeding two feet,
six or eight inches. Of this, the bill alone measures
six or seven inches, and its breadth, at the widest
part, is not less than an inch and a half. The
expanse of its wings is about four fect. The entire
plumage is of a clear white, with the exception of a
tawny yellowish spot on the breast of the adult, ex-
tending upwards on either side in the form of a nar-
row stripe, the two branches uniting on the back.
The long narrow feathers which form the crest on
the top of the head fall gracefully backwards. A
pale yellow tinge distinguishes the circumference of
the eyes and the throat, and is again visible at the
extremity of the bill, the remainder of which is of a
dull-black, with a bluish shade in the lateral grooves.
The colour of the legs and feet is perfectly black;
and the irides are of a bright orange red. The
females are smaller than the males, but differ in no
other external character. In the young, the quills of
the wing-feathers are black, the parts which are
without feathers are of a dirty white, and the crest
and spot on the breast are entirely wanting. ever br

The spoonbills usually frequent wooded marshes
near the mouths of rivers, building in preference
upon the taller trees, but, where these are wanting,
taking up their abode among the bushes or even
among the reeds. The females usually lay three or
The beak of the spoonbills is proportionally some-four whitish eggs. They associate together, but
what longer even than that of the storks; it is per-
fectly straight, flattened both above and below,
broad, flexible, and covered at its base with a mem-
branous cere. Towards the extremity, it expands
into an oval disk, of greater breadth than the
remainder of the bill, and rounded at the point. The
nostrils form two narrow oval fissures within the
cere at the base of the upper mandible, which is
slightly grooved on either side by a longitudinal
furrow, and terminates in a trifling hook. On the
inside, the mandibles are channelled, the margins of
the channel being raised, and surmounted by a row
of sharp projecting denticulations. In the adult bird,
the cheeks are naked, and a tuft of long narrow
feathers forms a crest on the back of the head. The
tongue is exceedingly short, triangular, and pointed;
the throat capable of being dilated into a pouch;
the legs long and covered with large reticulated
scales; the toes four in number, the three anterior
united for a considerable distance by a web which is
continued, in the shape of a fringe, to their very
extremities, and the posterior resting upon the
ground for nearly its whole length; the claws short,
narrow, slightly curved, and pointed; and the second
quill-feather the longest.

The white spoonbill is the only certain species of the group that inhabits the old Continent. In common with all the nearly-related birds, it is migratory in its habits, quitting the north of Europe, and more particularly Holland, which is its favourite summer resort, about November, and returning about April. In the winter it takes up its quarters in various parts

not in any considerable numbers, and feed upon the
smaller fishes and their spawn, shell-fish, and other
aquatick or amphibious animals. The form and flexi-
bility of their bills are well adapted for burrowing in
the mud after their prey; and the tubercles which
are placed on the inside of their manibles serve
both to retain the more slippery animals and to
break down their shelly coverings. Their internal
conformation, which is in nearly every respect simi-
lar to that of the storks, is admirably suited to this
kind of food. They have no proper voice, the lower
larynx being destitute of the muscles by which
sounds are produced, and their only means of vocal
expression consist in the snapping of their mandibles,
which they clatter with much precipitation when
under the influence of anger or alarm. In captivity,
they are perfectly tame, living in peace and concord
with the other inhabitants of the farmyard, and
rarely exhibiting any symptoms of wildness or desire
of change. In common with the neighbouring
groups they feed on all kinds of garbage.dt dibe
tu bus ould vide
THE SCARLET IBIS.nible e
od well
Ibis rubra. LACEP.

That a bird so highly celebrated in mythological
history as the ibis of ancient Egypt, incessantly rep-
resented on the early monuments of the country
which it still inhabits, and transmitted to us in al-
most infinite numbers in the shape of mummies from
a remote antiquity, should have been widely mis-
taken by every modern writer, until within the last

>

less breadth than the head, almost straight for about one half of its length, and having the remaining part gradually curved downwards, blunt at its point and without any notch; nostrils situated near the base of the bill at the commencement of a groove which is continued along each side of its upper surface as far as to its point; the head, and sometimes the neck, devoid of feathers to an extent, varying in the different races; and toes webbed at the base, the hinder one placed somewhat above the level of the others, but being of sufficient length to rest upon the earth. In many of these characters we observe a considerable deviation from those of the storks and other typical examples of the family with which the ibis is associated, and a marked approach to the curlews, occupying a station on the confines of the neighbouring family of Scolopaciada.

The scarlet ibis, in its adult plumage, is one of the most splendid among birds. When fully grown it measures from twenty to twenty-four inches in height. The colour of its plumage is, as its name imports, entirely scarlet, with the exception of the fifty years, is indeed matter of astonishment; but quill-feathers of its wings, which are black. The such is really the fact. Belon, an excellent orni- naked part of its cheeks, its bill, legs, and feet, are thologist, who visited Egypt about the middle of the of a pale reddish-brown. Its legs are covered with sixteenth century, imagined that the stork was the large scales. When first hatched, the young are true ibis of the ancients. Pocock maintained that covered with a blackish down, which soon changes the latter was a species of crane and De Maillet to an ash-colour, and at length becomes nearly conjectured that under the name of ibis were gene- white. This change occurs about the period they rically comprehended all those birds which are in- begin to fly; after the second moulting they assume strumental in removing the noxious reptiles that a tinge of red, which gradually becomes deeper and swarm in the inundated lands. Perrault first intro- more distinct, appearing first on the back, and then duced the erroneous notion that the ibis of antiquity spreading over the sides and upper parts of the body. was a species of tantalus, in which he was followed Its brilliancy increases as the bird advances in age. implicitly by naturalists throughout the whole of the last century. Brisson, Buffon, Linnæus, and Latham, all united to give it currency; and the tantalus ibis of the two latter authors was universally regarded as the sacred bird.

This beautiful species is a native of the tropical regions of America, and frequents the seashores and mouths of the larger rivers in large bands, feeding upon insects, shell-fish, and the smaller fish. It generally lies concealed during the heat of the day The adventurous Bruce was the first to throw a and in the night; and seeks its food only in the doubt upon the authenticity of this determination, and morning and evening. Its nest is built among the to point out the identity between the figures repre- thickets, and is of the most simple construction. sented on the ancient monuments, the mummies pre- When taken young, it is easily tamed, and submits to served in the Egyptian tombs, and a living bird domestication without repining. According to De common on the banks of the Nile and known to the Laet it has been propagated in captivity; and M. Arabs by the name of abou hannes. But it was not Delaborde gives the history of an individual which until after the return of the French expedition from he kept for upwards of two years, feeding it on Egypt, that the question was finally settled by a bread, raw or cooked meat, and fish. It was fond careful anatomical comparison of the ancient mum- of hunting in the ground for earth-worms, and folmies and recent specimens then brought home by lowed in quest of this food the labours of the garGeoffroy-Saint-Hilaire and Savigny. From the ex- dener. It would roost at night upon the highest amination of these materials M. Cuvier was enabled to verify Bruce's assertion, and to restore to science a bird which, after having formed for centuries the object of a nation's adoration, had fallen into oblivion, and was wholly unknown to modern naturalists. At the same time he pointed out those distinctive characters on which M. Lacepede founded the genus ibis, formerly established by M. Cuvier himself in the first edition of his Regne Animal.

a ogral on lo my di Although the bird which we have now to describe As that gallant can best affect a pretended passion is a native of the new world it has not been consid- for one woman, who has no true love for another, so ered by ornithologists as requiring to be generically he that has no real esteem for any of the virtues, can distinguished from the ibis of the ancients. With best assume the appearance of them all. that and with other species, distributed equally over the old continent and in America, it forms part of a If you would be known, and not know, vegetate group among the ardeiæ, characterized by a long and in a village; if you would know, and not be known, slender bill, nearly square at its base, where it is of live in a city.