350 



Monthly Review of Literature. 



Charms like yours can never stay 

 Long within doors ; and one day 

 You'll be going. 



The smoothest morceau we could find. 



The British Naturalist. Vol. II. We 

 were very much gratified by the first 

 volume of this spirited and intelligent 

 production - not only with the contents 

 generally, but with the skill and felicity 

 with which matters of -very different 

 characters, but locally and naturally 

 connected, were classed, described, and 

 discussed. The mountain, lake, river, 

 sea, moor, and brook, enabled the author 

 to group his subjects in a very novel 

 manner novel in books, we mean for 

 the grouping is nature's own. The con- 

 tents of the present volume are classed 

 under the term year' and spring and 

 summer form two divisions, to be fol- 

 lowed, it may be supposed, by the other 

 seasons. Considering the variability of 

 the climate of Britain, the author "has 

 thought it advisable to introduce his 

 subjects by a slight glance at the natu- 

 ral history of the year, as affected by 

 the motions of the earth, and the chang- 

 ing actions of the sun and moon. Though 

 executed with considerable ability, this 

 is little calculated, we think, to attract 

 those for whom the book is specifically 

 destined. " From their greater powers 

 of locomotion, the birds," he observes, 

 " are the best animated indexes to the 

 seasons, and, therefore, more space is 

 given to them than to any of the other 

 productions, though some hints respect- 

 ing other subjects will be found, where- 

 ever it was judged that they could 

 be introduced with advantage." The 

 cuckoo presents a fair specimen of the 

 frank and independent spirit of the wri- 

 ter. He denies not the stories usually 

 told, that the cuckoo deposits her eggs, 

 one by one, in the nests of small birds, 

 to be hatched by others, &c. All that 

 he will positively say is, that though he 

 has seen very many young cuckoos in 

 nests, sometimes two, but never more 

 in any one nest, and generally only one ; 

 and although he has seen them in nests 

 disproportion ally small, and of the same 

 structure as the nests of smaller birds, 

 he has never met with the egg of the 

 cuckoo along with that of any other 

 bird ; has never scared a little bird from 

 the act of incubation in a cuckoo's nest ; 

 and never detected one little bird in the 

 act of feeding a cuckoo, either in the 

 nest or out of it. The sum of the wri- 

 ter's belief, which carries with it more 

 probability than any thing we ever read 

 on the subject, is, that tlie cuckoo takes 

 possession of the nests of other birds, 

 either after these have quitted them, or 

 after it has made a meal of the eggs, 

 and then performs all the incubation and 

 nursing itself. She uses the nests of 



other birds, apparently, when they have 

 done with them. The nests of the small 

 birds the common pepit, and the hedge- 

 sparrow as far as the author's observa- 

 tion has extended, and also according 

 to the very authorities which make those 

 birds hatch the cuckoo, are finished at 

 least a fortnight before the cuckoo be- 

 gins to be heard, and that interval would 

 just about suffice for the period of jn- 

 cubation. 



The Anthology, an Annual Reward 

 Book for Midsummer and Christmas 1830, 

 by the Rev. J. D. Parry, M.A.It is 

 very much the fashion of schools, espe- 

 cially girls' schools ladies' schools we 

 meant of course - to give reward books 

 at the holidays for superiority in con- 

 duct and acquirement ; and it certainly 

 is better that selections should be made 

 deliberately by competent persons, as 

 well for the sake of variety, as for the 

 avoidance of offensive or inappropriate 

 matter. It is not every schoolmistress 

 that knows what is good, better and 

 best, and those who do will be thankful 

 to be saved the labour of selection ; and 

 after all, there are few volumes where 

 pruning is not desirable, but which can- 

 not be employed without spoiling the 

 beauty of the book, and perhaps exciting 

 a morbid curiosity. This is a second 

 specimen of the editor's labours, and, as 

 well as the first, amply proves his dili- 

 gence and judgment. The pieces, con- 

 sisting of voyages and travels, tales, 

 moral extracts, and poetry, are taken 

 from eighty volumes, with translations 

 from eleven languages a statement, 

 which, while it shews a little puffing, 

 implies no ordinary activity. 



Cabinet Album. Another collection 

 we wonder who buys them of scraps 

 in prose and verse. The pieces are all, 

 with two or three insignificant excep- 

 tions, the productions of the popular 

 writers of the day ; and very many of 

 them culled from the leading annuals, 

 periodicals, and papers. The selection, 

 however, is, in general, sufficiently hap- 

 py ; but what the selector means by the 

 cool statement, that " by far the greater 

 part will be new to most readers," we 

 cannot divine. The volume will fall 

 into the hands of few, we imagine, who 

 will not find themselves among old ac- 

 quaintances. There are, we believe, a 

 few original morsels we looked at one, 

 which did not tempt us to search for a 

 second. 



Discourses on the Millenium, the Doc- 

 trine of Election, Justification by Faith, 

 $c.. by the Rev. Michael Russell, LL.D. 

 A very sensible volume of theology, by 

 a Scotch Episcopalian. The principal 

 piece, occupying nearly half the volume, 

 concerns the doctrine of the Millenium, 



