A LITERARY, SCIENTIFIC, AND INSTRUCTIVE FAMILY PAPER. 



Conducted toy WILLIAM kibd, of Hammersmith,— 



Author of the Familiar and Popular Essays on "Natural History;" "British Song 



Birds;" "Birds of Passage;" "Instinct and Reason;" 



" The Aviary and its Occupants," &c. 



"the OBJECT of our work is to make MEN WISER, WITHOUT OBLIGING them to turn over folios and 



O.UARTOS. — TO FURNISH MATTER FOR THINKING, AS WELL AS READING." — EVELYN. 



No. 2.—1852. 



SATURDAY, JANUARY 10. 



Price \\d. 



Or, in Monthly Parts, Price Id. 



THOUGHTS ON THE NEW YEAE ; 



WITH A GLANCE AT 



TOWN AND COUNTRY LIFE. 



The old year — peace to his manes ! — lias 

 departed. The sayings and doings of 1851 

 are now mere matters of history ! " De 

 mortnis nil nisi bonum " is an epitaph, than 

 which none more appropriate could have 

 been composed for our good friend's tomb. 

 Let us record it on his grave-stone, to his 

 honor ; for his reign has been a great, a 

 good, a glorious, an ever-memorable reign — 

 the blessings he has conferred upon his 

 loving subjects have been neither few nor 

 small. Nor have the feathered tribe reason 

 to forget his lavish bounties ; for every suc- 

 cessive season has yielded them a perfect 

 " heaven of delights." All of us who have 

 ranged the fields throughout the year, can 

 and will most willingly testify of their un- 

 bounded happiness, and of the unlimited 

 provision the Creator has made for them 

 from first to last. Let us here breathe an 

 aspiration, that the mantle of our late most 

 gracious sovereign, " 1851," may descend on 

 the shoulders of his successor, " 1852," — to 

 whose advent let all his lawful subjects 

 shout—" All hail ! " 



As it has been our wont to notice, from 

 time to time, the aspect of Nature, and to 

 try to win, by the effort of our humble pen, 

 as many admirers of this gentle handmaid as 

 possible — we purpose, as the singing time 

 for birds is not yet fully come, to offer a few 

 stray thoughts on the opening year, which 

 may not be irrelevant to the study of na- 

 tural history generally. In the country 

 alone, let us remark, can the habits of birds 

 be fully arrived at. 



With us, Southrons, the " winter " season 

 nominally commences on the 21st of De- 

 cember ; so that, at the present time of 

 writing, we may fairly bid good-bye to au- 

 tumn and its lingering beauties. It is even 

 now lovely in its death ; and it leaves traces 



behind it of many pleasant hours, the re- 

 membrance of which will be ever sweet : — 



Farewell, clear Autumn, with thy vellow bowers, 

 Thy waving skies, thy fields of sallow hue! 

 Farewell, ye perishing and perished flowers, — 

 Ye shall revive when vernal skies are blue; 

 Bat now the tempest cloud of Winter lowers, 

 Frosts are severe, and snow-flakes not a few ; 

 Lifting their leafless houghs against the breeze, 

 Forlorn appear the melancholy trees. 



Those who live in towns and cities are apt 

 to imagine the season of winter a severe visi- 

 tation, bringing with it necessarily " all the 

 ills that flesh is heir to." To escape these 

 as effectually as may be, they make up their 

 minds either to sleep it away, or beguile the 

 time by all manner of in-door amusement. 

 Thus, should it snow, all the inmates of a 

 family crowd round the hearth ; a fire is 

 made up, or rather heaped up in the drawing- 

 room, and the party becomes half-roasted 

 (on one side only). Or perhaps, the same 

 individuals, feeling sleepy after partaking 

 largely of a substantial dinner, fall back 

 into an easy chair, and indulge in " 40 

 winks " — an atrocious practice truly, even 

 for adults. Thus are Nature's laws abused; 

 thus is common sense outraged ; and illness 

 " invited " into the house. 



The same occurs too frequently, when it 

 is a fme, frosty, bracing day. Instead of 

 bounding joyously forth, to take advantage 

 of the weather, and so create a healthy tone 

 in the system — how very many of us are 

 there who prefer seeking refuge under the 

 protecting influence of a large, well-filled, 

 blazing stove ! Let me gently remind such 

 unthinking folks of the extreme liability 

 they incur of taking cold, when leaving the 

 room, and passing to and frq through the 

 various currents of air; also let me urge 

 upon them the folly of so endeavoring to 

 produce a circulation of the blood, the want 

 of which is the avant-courier of nearly all 

 domestic diseases. Well may our medical 



Vol. I.— New Series. 



