332 MISCELLANY. 



ing their starting-post the railings of the bridge crossing the water. The bird by 

 no means invariably returns to the same spot after each capture, as — if we re- 

 member rightly — some authors affirm. The Grey Flycatcher, though a plain, 

 is a handsome bird, and considering that the adults are scarcely spotted at all, 

 the pretty mottling of the young birds is a little remarkable. This bird is some- 

 times called the Spotted Flycatcher ; but this is obviously objectionable, as it can 

 only apply to young birds before the first moult. — Ed. 



Uses of the Sheep. — That Sheep of some species or other were bred for their 

 skins and milk in the earliest ages of the world, we have the testimony of the 

 Inspired Volume to prove. Whether the antediluvian flocks were of the same 

 species as our own — whether the wool had at that early period assumed the 

 curled crisp character which it at present possesses — these and other questions, how- 

 ever interesting, cannot now receive even a plausible repty. We know that the 

 young of the Sheep constituted the victim of the earliest sacrifices, and that the 

 same animal was the most important, because the most clearly typical subject of 

 the Jewish offerings. It does not appear that it was anciently a favourite arti- 

 cle of food ; nor is it in the present day, excepting in this country, esteemed so 

 highly as some other kinds of meat. But in all countries, and in all ages, it has 

 constituted one of the most useful animals which has ever been reduced under 

 the immediate domination of mankind, from the exceeding value of its woolly 

 covering, as the basis of the most wholesome and comfortable and durable articles 

 of clothing, and for its milk, which it yields in considerable abundance, and 

 which is at once pleasant and highly nutritious. 



There probably is not a species amongst all our domestic animals which in its 

 historic relations is so interesting as the Sheep. Its early domestication, its em- 

 ployment as the subject of the first sacrifices, its typical character as an offering 

 of atonement, its importance as forming the principal wealth of the early pa- 

 triarchs — its various connexions, in short, with the political, the religious, and the 

 domestic customs of those primitive magnates of the Jewish nation, are all of 

 them subjects affording ample food for deep and delightful reflection. The rela- 

 tion which existed between the patriarchal shepherds and their flocks was indeed 

 of so intimate and even affectionate a nature, as to have afforded the subject of 

 many of the most beautiful and touching parables and moral illustrations in the 

 Sacred Writings. It is scarcely necessary to refer to the unequalled appeal of 

 Nathan to David, to the still higher and prophetic allusion to the character of 

 the Messiah, or to the sublime illustration of the beneficence of " the great Shep- 

 herd of Israel," in the beautiful and well-known pastoral psalm. These are sub- 

 jects which cannot be discussed here ; but it is impossible to pass them wholly 

 without notice. But the historical interest attached to this animal does not stop 

 here. The customs observed in the treatment of their flocks by the shepherds 



