MATERNAL AFFECTION". 379 



is migratory. At least, in the vicinity of Edinburgh, we 

 recognise her not throughout the long-enduring winter. — 

 Encyclopcedia Britannica, Art. Ornithology. 



THE HEN AXD HER BROOD. 



Who knows not (now divinely told) how the hen doth 

 gather her brood beneath her wings ; how she shelters 

 them from the chill of the morning and the dews of night, 

 expanding her downy breast and feathery pinions, till she 

 becomes a populous tabernacle, a living temple of maternal 

 love, beset with small protruding bills, and bright but 

 gentle eyes ; how she will dare, with upraised ruffled 

 plumes, the fiercest onset of the direst foe: — the callous 

 schoolboy with his threatening club, the snarling cur-dog 

 with his ivory fangs, the insidious weasel, creeping so 

 serpent-like through tangled herbage, or the bolder bird 

 of prey, "lord of the lion heart and eagle eye," descending 

 swift and sure like thunder-bolt from heaven. What 

 are each or all of these in dread array, with death itself, to 

 her, at other times a fearful creature, but now pervaded 

 by the deep intensity of mother love ! — Illustrations of 

 Scripture. 



