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STRATFORD-UPON-AVON.

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---GLEANINGS

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GLEANINGS- THE HUMMING BIRDS OF THE SEA.-Beautiful, indeed, arc terns of every kind, but the roseate excels the rest, it not in form, yet in the lovely hue of its breast. I had never seen a bird of this species before, and as the unscathed hundreds arose and danced as it were in the air, I thougnt them the humming-birds of the air, so light and graceful were their movements.— Light as a sylpli, the arctic tern dances through the air above and around you. The graces, one might imagine, had taught it to perform those beautiful gambols which you see it display the moment you approach the spot which it has cliosen for its nest. Over many a league of ocean has it passed, regardless of the dangers and difficulties that might deter a more considerate traveller. Now over some solitary green isle, a creek, or an extensive bay, it sweeps, now over the expanse of the boundless sea; at length it has reached tile distant regions ot the north, and amidst the floating icebergs stoops to pick up a shrimp. It betakes itself to the borders of a lonely-sand bank, or a low rocky island there side by side the males ami females alight, and congratulate each other on tile happy termination of tneir long journey.—Audubon. The whooping crane is a dangerous enemy; even when he is not beaten I left my rifle unloaded, and in great haste pursued the wounded bird, which doubtless would have escaped had it not made towards a pile of drift wood, wnere I overtook it. As I approached it, panting and almost exhausted, it im- mediately raised itself to the full stretch of its body, legs, and neck, milled its feathers, shook them, and advanced towards me with open bill, and eyes glanc- Ing wltll ang-pr. I cannot tell vou whether it was from feeling almost exhausted with the fatigue of the chase; but, however it was, I felt unwilling to en- counter my antagonist, and keeping my eye on him, moved backwardSi;- The farther [ removed, the more he advanced, until at length I fairly turned my back to him, and took to my heels, retreating with fully more speed than I had pursued. lie followed, and I was glad to reach the river, into which I plunged up to the neck, calling out to my boatmen, who came up as fast as they could. The crane stood looking an- grily on me all the while, immersed up to his belly in the water, and only a few yards distant, now and then making thrusts at me with his bill.—Ibid. THE AIICTIC J AGER.-Few birds surpass it in power or length of flight. It generally passes through the air at a height of fifty or sixty yards, flying 111 an easy manner, ranging over the broad bays, oil which gulls of various kinds are engaged in procuiing their food. No sooner has it observed that one of them of has secured a fish, than it immediately flies towards it and gives chase. It is almost impossible for the gull to escape, for the warrior with repeated jer ings o his firm pinions sweeps towards it, with the rapic 1 y o a peregrine falcon pouncing ou a duck. ac icu anc turn of the gull onlv irritates him the more and whets his keen appetite, until by two or three sudden as u s, ut he forces it to disgorge the food it had so lately swallowed. When on wing, its beautiful long tail-feathers seem at times to afford tiiis bii-d great assistance in executing short sudden. turns, which have often brought to my mind t e ino ions of a grevhound while pursuing a hare. y su U1 as I- ings of its tail it can instantly turn, or arrest its flight. When it is on the water, it keeps t.iat part upright, but when 011 a rock or a oa nig piece o timber, it allows it to fall in a graceful iriaiinei,Ibid r, A gentleman of Lichfield meeting the Doctor returning from a walk, enquire d how far lie had been ? The Doctor replied, he had gone round Mi Levet s field (the place where the scholars p ay) in si arc 1 o a rail that he used to jump over when a toy, and, savs the Doctor in a transport of joy, I have been so fortunate as to find it: I stood," said he, "gazing upon it some time with a degree 01 rapture, for it brought to my mind all my juvenile sports and pas- times, and at length I determined to try my skill and dexterity 1 laid aside my hat and wig pulled off my coat, and leapt over it twice.17 ,1|U.S &rea^ Pr- Johnson, only three years before his death, was, with- out a hat, wig, or coat, jumping ovcJ A rail he used to fly over when a school-boy.—Boswell s Life of John- son. As AMERICAN AUTUMN.'—I sat down by the com- panion-ladder, and opened soul and eye to the glorious scenery we were gliding through. Ine first severe frost had come, and the miraculous change had passed upon the leaves which is known only in America. The blood-red sugar maple, with a leaf brighter and more delicate than a Circassian lip, stood here and there in the forest like the Sultan's standard in a host—the solitary and far-seen aristocrat of the wilderness; the birch, with its spirit-like and amber leaves, ghosts of the departed summer, turned out along the edges of the woods like a lining of the palest gold the broad sycamore and the fan-like catalpa flaunted tlteirsaffron foliage in the sun, spotted with gold, like the wings of the ladv-bird; the kingly oak with its summit shaken bare, still hid its majestic, trunk in a drapery of sump- tuous dves, like a stricken monarch, gathering his robes of state about him to die royally in his purple; the tall poplar, with its minaret of silver leaves, stood blanched like a coward in tne dying foiest, burthening everv breeze with its complainings; the hickory, paled through its enduring green; the bright berries of the mountain-ash^flushed with a more sanguine glory in the unobstructed sun the gundy tulip-tree, the Syba- rite of vegetation, stripped of its golden cups, still drank the intoxicating light of noon-day in leaves than which the lip of all Indian shell was never more deli- cately tinted; the still deeper dyed vines of the lavish wilderness, perishing with the noble things whose summer tllev had shared, outshone them in their de- cline, as woman in her death is heavenlier than the btiii, oil w',Iolll in life she leaned; and alone and un- sympathising in this universal decay, out-laws from Nature, stood thefir and the hemloek, their frowning and sombre heads darker and less lovely than ever, in con- trast with the death-struck glory of their companions. Tne dull colours of English autumnal foliage give you no conception of this marvellous phenomenon. The change here is gradual; in America it is the work of a night—of a single frost! Oh, to have seen the sun set 011 hills bright in the still green and lingering sum- mer, and to awake in the morning to a spectacle like this! It is as if a myriad of rainbows were laced through the tree tops—as if the sun-sets of a summer -gold, purple, and crimson—had been fused in the alembic of the west, and poured back In a new deluge of light and colour over the wilderness. It is as If every leaf ill those countless trees had been painted to outflush the tulip-a.; if, by some electric, miracle, the dyes of the earth's heart had struck upward, and her crystals, and ores, her sapphires, hyacinths, and rubies had Jet forth their imprisoned colours to mount through the roots of the forest, and, like the angels that in olden time entered the bodies of the dying, re-animate the perishing leaves, and revel an hour in their bravery.- New Monthly Magazine.

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