342 Jenningii Ornitholbgia, 



how early an age children can be instructed in the most in- 

 teresting parts of natural history, commencing even in infancy ; 

 a subject beautifully touched on by Coleridge in his verses 

 to the nightingale, which, though rather long, we cannot 

 refrain from extracting : — 



— ^ ** That strain again ? 



Full fain it would delay me ! My dear babe. 



Who, capable of no articulate sound. 



Mars all things with his imitative lisp, 



How he would place his hand beside his ear. 



His little hand, the small fore-finger up. 



And bid us listen ! And / deem it wise 



To make him nature's playmate. He knows well 



The evening star; and once, when he awoke 



In most distressful mood (some inward pain 



Had made up that strange thing, an infant's dream), 



I hurried with him to our orchard plot. 



And he beheld the moon ; and, hush'd at once. 



Suspends his sobs, and laughs most silently ; 



While his fair eyes, that swam with midnight tears. 



Did glitter in the yellow moon-beam ! Well, 



It is a father's tale : but if that Heaven 



Should give me life, his childhood shall grow up 



Familiar with these songs, that, with the night. 



He may associate joy " 



Sibylline Zscaves, 209, 



As an object of elegant pursuit for country gentlemen, the 

 study of ornithology is not inferior to any other department 

 of nature. To the sportsman, to the gentleman farmer, and 

 to horticulturists, the knowledge of the habits and the food of 

 birds is indispensable, inasmuch as ignorance of the subject 

 may often give rise to most serious injury and loss. For 

 example, in New ^England the cultivated grounds were some 

 years ago much frequented with a species of crow, and the 

 farmers, supposing that their crops were thus injured, resolved 

 to extirpate the whole race, and offered a price for their heads. 

 The proscription was very successfully carried into effect ; but 

 the farmers, instead of being gainers, were severe sufferers. 

 The crows, it should appear, like the rooks of our own country, 

 did not frequent the fields so much for the sake of the grain, 

 as to feed upon grubs, which, after the universal massacre of 

 the crows, increased so numerously as nearly to destroy the 

 entire crops, and threaten a famine. When the error was 

 discovered, the crows were as anxiously protected as they had 

 been formerly persecuted. Similar instances, in the case of 

 rooks, have occurred in Britain. This view of the subject has 

 not escaped Mr. Jennings, who makes the house sparrow say, 



" How comes it that the good we do 

 Is kept most carefully from view ? 



