312 FOREIGN BIRDS. 



Of the Bell-birds was heard too the loud clanging 



note, 

 As far distant it seem'd upon ether to float. 



What clamour arose as the Birds flew along ! 

 No time was there now for the soothing of song ; 

 The sounds more like Babel assaulted the ear ; 

 The Sea-birds like dense clouds dark rolling appear. 



pursuit of the larger insects, particularly the ScarabcBus Melolon- 

 tha, or cock-chafer, &c. 



"Hark from yon quivering branch your direst foe, 

 Insects of night, its whirring note prolongs 

 Loud as the sound of busy maiden's wheel : 

 Then with expanded beak, and throat enlarged, 

 Even to its utmost stretch, its customed food 

 Pursues voracious. Thus from Zembla's deep 

 On warmer climes when herring armies pour 

 The living tide of plenty ; to the sun 

 With gold and green and azure many a league, 

 When ocean glitters like a field of gems 

 Gay as the bow of heaven, and burns by night 

 In every billow with phosphoric fire ; 

 Their march innumerous foes attend. Behold 

 In light wing'd squadrons, gulls of every name 

 Screaming discordant on the surface hang, 

 Aud ceaseless stoop for prey. Lo ! gunnels huge 

 And ospreys plunging from their cloudy height 

 With leaden fall precipitate, the waves 

 Cleave with deep dashing breast, and labouring rise 

 Talons and beak o'er-loaded." 



Gisborne's Walks in a Forest. 



I have thought it most advisable not to separate these lines, 

 so descriptive of several facts in the natural history of birds, 



