a MY DEAR BOY,-I have just heard that R. T. is going to-morrow to to live with a Mr. in street. I lose no time in dropping you a line to warn you against forming any acquaintance with him, as he is a young man whose society would do you no good. He is one who breaks the sabbath, and shames his father and mother, Prov. xxviii. 7. It grieves me to write thus of a neighbour's son; and you know I would not do it, but from a sense of duty to my own absent child. Your dear mother desires her kindest love to you, and charges you constantly to bear in mind Prov. xiii. 20. She is attending to all your requests, and will make up a parcel for you in two or three days; but was anxious that not a single post should be lost in giving you this caution, lest if an acquaintance had once been claimed by either yourself or your fellow townsman, it might have proved a snare to you before you were aware. May the Lord bless you, and keep you, prays Your affectionate father. DEAR Mrs. VI. DAUGHTER, -Our neighbour has just called in to say that she saw you yesterday, and that you were quite well, but that you seemed rather unsettled in your place, and that you had a mind to go where more servants were kept, and where perhaps you might get higher wages, and have less to do. This makes us very uneasy: you now live in a quiet, respectable family, where you have many advantages, and you may easily go farther and fare worse. Those are true proverbs, "A rolling stone gathers no moss"-"A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." "The dog that grasped at a shadow lost "I was well, would the substance.' be better, took physic, and died." So, dear Sarah, we hope you will think well about it, before you make any move, with a notion of bettering yourself. At any rate, we should like to have a letter from you before you take any step: a letter now goes all the way for a penny. Let us know if there is any difficulty in your place, more than we are aware of, and why it is you wish to change. Then we will write and give you our best advice; but pray do not go hastily and fling yourself out of good bread. Jane came over to see us last week. She has plenty of work to do; but she says it is every day becoming more and more easy to her. Her mistress gives her a good character for being steady and willing to learn. So we hope she will do well. This comes with kind love from Your loving parents. VII. DEAR HENRY,-I often lament our being so far apart, and that it is so expensive and uncertain to send a parcel. It is one comfort that we can now send letters as often as we like, and I hope we shall neither of us be disposed to leave the other long in anxiety about our health and welfare. Half a sheet of paper, half a dozen lines and a penny, is a cheap offering for the comfort of an absent brother or sister. Then when time allows, we can write more fully, and thus keep up that sort of acquaintance with each other, which absence so sadly interrupts. We can only think of each other, as we were when we parted; but a frequent interchange of letters, will make us familiar with the progress of each other's mind and pur IX. suits. If we gain a piece of valuable | me with a line; and I shall conscienknowledge, we can impart it before it tiously withhold my mind from decision, is forgotten by ourselves, and lost to while I believe they are imploring for our friends; and if one should be taking me that guidance that cannot err. I up an erroneous sentiment, the other remain, with sincere respect, will have an opportunity of correcting Truly yours, it before it takes a very deep hold of the mind. But it is just post time, and I am reminded that I did not take up my pen to sentimentalize on the advantages of a cheap postage, but to tell you that I have just met with a delightful little book, entitled, "The Young Man from Home.' I am sure you will be equally delighted with it, and profited by it. As by taking off the covers, 1 can inclose it in this letter, and send it all the way to you (three hundred miles and more) for sixpence, or with the neat binding for eightpence, I do so; last year it would have cost seventeen shillings and four pence. Your affectionate sister. P.S.-I shall think of you in the intervals of worship on Lord's day, as reading the book, and recalling your own leaving home. VIII. MY DEAR FRIEND,-I am placed in circumstances of much perplexity, as to the path of duty respecting For my encouragement, I lay hold on the gracious permission: "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not," James i. 5. "In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and he shall direct thy paths," Prov. iii. 6. I trust I do in sincerity seek that direction, and that it will be my privilege to receive it; but then I know it must be sought in the use of means, and one mean is the counsel of judicious Christian friends. Permit me to solicit yours; and, since "the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much," James v. 16, you will not think me enthusiastic if I say that I this night avail myself of the new facility of communication with absent friends to write to yourself and five others, each of whom I believe possesses that sacred interest in the court of Heaven, and entreat not only their own best judgment on the case, but also their fervent prayers that in this important step I may be preserved from mistake and guided in the way wherein I should go. I shall hope that in the course of a week, each of my friends will favour MY DEAR FRIEND,-I rejoice in the prosperity that has attended your enterprizes through the past year, and entreat you to take into your serious consideration the two following texts:- "What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" Mark viii. 36. "Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the first fruits of all thine increase," Prov. iii. 9. X. Faithfully yours. MY DEAR FRIEND, I have just heard of your heavy calamity, and deeply sympathize with you. I hope to write a few lines to-morrow. Meanwhile, cheer up, and remember Heb. xii. 6. Yours affectionately. "A BUSHEL of March dust is worth a king's ransom,' so says an old proverb. Were the heavy rains of the previous month continued throughout the present, the seeds committed to the earth and already germinating, would perish; and the industry of man become frustrated. Hence, though March is a try. ing month, as it is often termed, on the character it assumes, (reference being made more particularly to our island,) depend the fulness of summer, and the riches of autumn. Let us, then, thankful that He who "tempers the winds to the shorn lamb," has ordered all things quarters. Gilbert White says, "Snakes attempt to bend it: hence its specific title, lay chains of eggs in my melon beds fragilis. It is much smaller than the every summer, in spite of all that my common snake, and seldom exceeds twelve people can do to prevent them; which or fourteen inches in length. Insects, eggs do not hatch till the spring follow- slugs, and earth worms constitute its food; ing, as I have often experienced." We the undilateable character of its mouth have found their eggs in cucumber beds, preventing it from swallowing frogs or and in heaps of stable manure. Frogs, similar animals. Mr. G. Daniel (see toads, lizards, snails, the eggs of small Bennett's edition of White's Selborne) birds, and nestling birds, together with says, "A blind-worm that I kept alive mice, and even young rats, are the food for nine weeks, would when touched, turn of the snake; and in the pursuit of the and bite, although not very sharply; its latter, it is bold and active: indeed the bite was not sufficient to draw blood, but strength of the snake is much greater it always retained its hold until released. than might be anticipated from its form, It drank sparingly of milk, raising its nor is its courage less, when opposed to head when drinking. It fed upon the natural enemies; at the same time it little white slug (Limax agrestis, Linn.) is easily rendered tame and familiar. so common in fields and gardens, eating We know of an instance, in which one six or seven of them, one after the other; was kept for the space of eleven years but it did not eat every day. It invariby a gentleman, to whom it manifested ably took them in one position. Elevatgreat attachment. A lady of consider- ing its head slowly above its victim, it able repute in the literary world, in- would suddenly seize the slug by the formed the writer, that she knew a lady middle, in the same way that a ferret or of somewhat eccentric habits, who, much dog will generally take a rat by the loins; to the annoyance of her friends, domes- it would then hold it thus for sometimes ticated a host of snakes, as pets: they more than a minute, when it would pass recognized her, and would come when its prey through its jaws, and swallow the called, and wreathe themselves around slug head foremost. It refused the her arms or neck; and indeed, often larger slugs, and would not touch either around those of her visitors, to their young frogs or mice: snakes kept in the terror and amazement. Another of our same cage took both frogs and mice. British reptiles, which now makes its The blind-worm avoided the water; the re-appearance, (and which is to a natu- snakes, on the contrary, coiled themselves ralist an interesting animal, as belong- in the pan containing water, which was ing to a form intermediate between cer- put into the cage, and appeared to delight tain of the saurian reptiles (lizards) on in it. The blind-worm was a remarkably the one hand, namely, those of the genera fine one, measuring fifteen inches in Scincus, Chalcides, and Seps, and on length. It cast its slough whilst in the other, the true snakes,) is the blind- my keeping; the skin came off in sepaworm, (Anguis fragilis.) The blind-rate pieces.' When at liberty, however, worm, or slow-worm, is common through- the slough of this species, as is the case out most parts of Europe, and is gentle with the common snake, is thrown off and inoffensive, but at the same time entire, and turned inside out, like the very timid. Its general colour is light inverted finger of a glove, or as we see brown, having a gloss of silvery grey, and the skin stripped off an eel. Of the nuwith a dorsal line of dark or blackish merous specimens of this curious reptile dots; several lines of a similar colour are which we have handled while alive, not carried along the sides: these markings one ever attempted to bite. are, however, by no means constant, and some examples are altogether destitute of them: the head is small and blunt; the tail short, and obtuse at its termination; the eyes are small but brilliant, and have true eyelids; the teeth are minute; the tongue is not very extensive, nor bifid as in the common snake. When under apprehension of injury, this reptile contracts its muscles, so as to render itself stiff, and at the same time so brittle as to snap in two by the slightest blow, or even an Few of our summer birds of passage have yet made their appearance, though most of our winter visitors have already taken their departure for the wide regions of the north. One species may be observed flitting about on the common lands and open pasture grounds, remarkable for the pure white of the lower part of the back, in contrast with the bluish-grey of the rest of the upper parts, and the fawn colour of the chest. It is the wheatear (Saxicola œnanthe Bechst.) How quick, restless, and uncertain are its movements, as it flits from turf to turf, or from stone to stone, and how nimbly it runs along the ground! On its first arrival, the wheatear is very fat, so much so that we have seen examples shot, in which the fat oozing through the small orifices made by the pellets of lead, completely saturated the plumage: it is at this season that the wheatear is prized as a delicacy for the table, equal, if not superior, to the ortolan, (Emberiza hortulana,) so esteemed in the south of Europe. Hence numbers are annually caught, on the downs of our southern counties. The mode of entrapping is by placing two turfs upright, at a sufficient distance from each other to allow the bird to pass between; at each opening is fixed a horsehair noose secured to a peg of wood; the bird attempting to enter in search of food, (for it is in crevices and similar places where it finds the insects on which it feeds,) or for shelter, is nearly sure of being caught; but if the first noose misses, the other, as it passes out, will probably entangle it. To what extent the capture of this bird is annually carried on, we cannot ascertain; in Latham's time it was very great, for he informs us that in the vicinity of Eastbourne, in Sussex, 1,840 dozens have been taken in one year. It is remarkable that of the three British examples of the genus Saxicola, two, the wheatear (S. ananthe) and the whinchat (S. rubetra) should be migratory, while the stone-chat (S. rubicola) should continue to reside on the open lands, moors, and commons of this country, throughout the whole of the year. The whinchat seldom appears before the middle of April. Observe the flight of that bird which rose from amongst the rushes; it is a snipe, (Scolopax gallinago.) How irregular and zigzag its first movements, how suddenly it then mounted aloft, and how abrupt its descent: snipe-shooting requires a quick and practised eye. This well-known bird is a permanent resident in our island, changing its situation from one locality to another, as the weather may render necessary. During the autumn and winter, these birds, scattered over the low lands, frequent marshes, bogs, and rushy grounds, which they forsake during severe frosts, or when the ground is covered with snow, for the fountain-heads of rivulets, and for springs whose temperature preserves them from being ice-bound. As the spring sets in, in March, earlier or later, according to the weather, they mostly retire to the more elevated moorland tracts, and prepare for their nidification. A few however remain on the marshes or fenny lands of the lower and more southern parts of the island, there to breed. The piping call of the male bird, which is always uttered on the wing, may now be heard, accompanied at times by a humming noise, apparently produced, as Mr. Selby states, "by a peculiar action of the wings, as the bird, whenever this sound is emitted, is observed to descend with great velocity, and with a trembling motion of the pinions." In winter, our native snipes receive additions to their number 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, (Scolopax rusticola,) which, except occasionally, does not stay in our island to breed, takes its departure during this month for higher latitudes, for Sweden and Norway, where these birds are very abundant, and where their eggs are considered as a delicacy for the table, and collected in thousands, to the decrease, as sportsmen complain, of the species; for of late years this bird, so esteemed a delicacy for the table, visits our island in less abundance than formerly. The bill of the woodcock and snipe is organized as a feeler, having a tissue of nerves distributed over it, and particularly at its extremity, which is covered with a soft pulpy skin, or substance in which the nervous filaments ramify in vast numbers. Thus endowed with discriminating sensibility, the bill is further provided with certain muscles, which, by compression of the basal portion of the bill, are brought into action so as to expand the tips of both mandibles in such a manner as to enable them, inserted into the soft mud, to lay hold of the worm or insect which they feel, and draw it forth. The beautiful provision thus described for enabling these birds to feel the prey which they cannot see, to discriminate it from other things which the mud contains, and to secure it, is an instance of adaptive design, which cannot escape the observation of even the most unreflective. During this month, the lapwing or pewit (Vanellus cristatus) returns in small flocks to the moorland lightless." To a short gleam of warmth and sunshine, it often happens, "That frosts succeed, and winds impetuous rush, And hailstones rattle through the budding bush, Then, night-fall'n lambs require the shepherd's care, And gentle ewes that still their burdens bear; At whose first birth the powerful instinct's seen, tracts, in order to breed: the pairing season with them has commenced; and during this period, their flight, particularly that of the males, is peculiar for a variety of evolutions, in the course of which they dart upwards, sweep round, descend, and whirl about with great rapidity, their wings being so strongly and quickly agitated as to produce a whistling or hissing noise. Amongst our native birds, the red grouse (and it is exclusively peculiar to the British islands) breeds on the heath-covered hills and moors during the present month; the March is a busy month for the huspairing time of this hardy and beautiful bandman, who sows that he may reap bird is in January; its nest, if it deserves and gather into barns; and who, as he the appellation, consists of a few withered sees the sower stalk with measured step stems of heath or grass, placed by way along the newly ploughed ground, throwof lining in a shallow cavity of the grounding into the earth the seed intrusted, as on the heath, and on this the eggs are deposited; these are eight, ten, or twelve in number, of a greyish white, blotched with brown. The female only performs the task of incubation; but the brood when hatched, are under the care of both parents conjointly. The wild duck (Anas boschas) pairs in March; and the male and female continue associated till the female begins the task of incubation, when the male deserts her, and joins others of his own sex, forming flocks by themselves. The care of the young brood is exclusively the work of the female. The domestic goose may now be seen with her callow young; the common fowl lays eggs; the pastures are enlivened by lambs, sporting playfully by the sides of their watchful mothers, who now become intrepid in the defence of their progeny. The care which the ewes display towards their lambs, and the readiness with which each individual recognises its own, the lamb at the same time recognising its parent among a flock, are displays of instinct often adverted to. Traits of instinct are always interesting, and to admit the influence of instinct, is to admit of design in creation. He who has called all beings into existence, has in wisdom and mercy given to each the innate desires, impulses, and modes or ways of action, suited to its especial wants; and hence it is, that instinct never misguides, while reason often leads to error. To the shepherd, March is an important month, and his flock demands much attention and forethought, for the weather is still often severe, and sudden changes of atmospheric temperature, and storms of sleet and hail, deform the day de it were, to its fostering bosom, there to BUTTERFLIES IN THE WESTERN PAMPAS. THE horizon was strangely distorted by refraction, and I anticipated some violent change. Suddenly, myriads of white butterflies surrounded the ship, in such multitudes, that the men exclaimed, "It is snowing butterflies." They were driven before a gust from the northwest, which soon increased to a double-reefed topsail breeze, and were as numerous as flakes of snow in the thickest shower. The space they occupied could not have been less than two hundred yards in height, a mile in width, and several miles in length.-Captain Fitzroy. |