SLllFJItliAN EXCURSION. 13 



were at my mercy. Favour from mere Ornitholof/i-it.s I neither 

 want nor expect. My aim is to instruct and amuse the public, 

 to impart to those unacquainted vvitli it some knowledge of my 

 favourite .subject, to exercise my faculties, and to describe nature 

 in her varying aspects. Perhaps there is no need of all this 

 egotism ; but I lia\e done. There is one God o\er all. Jn him 

 I trust, for without his permission, not a hair .shall fall from my 

 head, and under his guiflance I .shall run my appointed race, 

 and rest from my labours, ilow b;j,jjji\- shall I bij to find all 

 irjy niost bitter foes ifj tbat paradi-.f; \\1j)''1) J hop'; to inlierit ! 



Pray don't talk so loud. 'I'li'; pfjojjje stare at us, just as 

 they stared at your frionfl .Mr Weir the other day, when, hav- 

 ing landed at the Canal Basin, he carried along the .streets that 

 great piece of fir-tree which contains the nest of the Mar.sh 

 Titmouse. " The miserly old fellow V said one, " he looks 

 like a gentleman, and yet is carrying home a log for firewood." 



I remember. Mr Weir is an enthusiast, a lover of nature, 

 and, although a Conservative and a trapper of hirds, a Christian 

 and a scholar. I forgot him when I boa.sted of having fought 

 my way with my own claymore. You shall see presently how 

 efficient his aid has been. Other friends too, still dearer, 1 over- 

 looked, especially him who now, in some Canadian wilderness 

 is making room for himself and his family, beset perhaps with 

 murderous rebels and renegades, my be.st and most beloved 

 friend William Craigie ; and him too, of .sultry Louisiana, the 

 wanderer of the wild woods, the warm-hearted and generous 

 Audubon ; and many more, some of whom I .shall have occa- 

 sion to mention, but above all, one who will presently welcome 

 us, for here, at No. 1 , Wharton Place, we end our digression 

 for the present. 



Well ! here we are, two Closet Naturalists, seated by a deal 

 table, and having before us, instead of a liberal supply of books 

 and preserved .skins, two Blackbirds, a Rook, and several Lin- 

 nets, which we have ourselves procured ; a Wood Pigeon and a 

 Red Grouse, wdiich we have obtained in the market ; and a 

 basketful of bodies just arrived from Mr Carfrae's. Let us re- 

 member that the component parts of a bird, as of other animal.s, 

 are numerous, and varied in form and texture, but capable of 



