THE ROMANCE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



All day thy wings have fann'd, 

 At that far height, the cold, thin atmosphere, 

 Yet stoop not, weary, to the welcome land, 



Though the dark night is near. 



And soon that toil shall end. 

 Soon shalt thou find a summer home, and rest, 

 And scream among thy fellows ; reeds shall bend. 



Soon, o'er thy shelter'd nest. 



Thou'rt gone, the abyss of heaven 

 Hath swallow'd up thy form ; yet, on my heart, 

 Deeply hath sunk the lesson thou hast given, 



And shall not soon depart. 



He who, from zone to zone, 

 Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight, 

 In the long way that I must tread alone, 



Will lead my steps aright. 



The ostrich is remarkably shy and wary. A 

 native of wide sandy plains, its stature enables it 

 to command a wide horizon, while its great fleet- 

 ness makes the chase a most severe exercise. 

 "When she lifteth herself on high, she scorneth the 

 horse and his rider."' The rheas, which are the 

 representatives of the ostrich in South America, 

 inhabit regions presenting many of the character- 

 istics of the African plains, and have much the 

 same habits. They are extraordinarily vigilant, 

 and so swift of foot, that it is only by surround- 

 ing them from various quarters, and thus confus- 

 ing the birds, who know not whither to run, that 

 the Gauchos are able to entangle them with the 

 bolas or weighted cord. Mr. Darwin says that 

 the bird takes alarm at the approach of man, 

 when he is so far off as to be unable to discern 

 the bird. 



Ancient writers mention a species of ox as in- 

 habiting the forests of Europe, which they call the 

 urus. It is deseribed as being of a most savage 

 and untameable disposition, delighting in the 

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