KIDD'S LONDON JOURNAL. 



147 



The issue of human rashness and folly thus 

 humorously pictured in the experience of the fea- 

 thered tribes, are frequently of so mischievous 

 and disastrous a nature, that it might seem de- 

 sirable with thousands to have the unerring in- 

 stincts of the lower animals substituted for the 

 rational faculties which are possessed by them to 

 so little purpose. 



Such unseasonable excesses, however, though 

 sufficiently common in the experience of men, 

 are altogether unknown among the lower ani- 

 mals. No mild winter ever tempts the finch or 

 the robin to build its nest, or awakens the in- 

 harmonious music of the cawing rookery, to call 

 its inmates to the social work of spring. The 

 birds which flit about the leafless woods through- 

 out the winter, remain as indifferent to the whole 

 proceedings connected with the reproductive 

 functions and instincts, as the whole tribe of in- 

 sects, then cradled in their silken cocoons and 

 chrysalis cases. 



But no sooner does the proper season approach, 

 than a total change is apparent. Though the 

 chill of winter still lingers, and the increasing 

 warmth of the sun's rays are only very partially 

 perceivable, a complete regeneration of nature 

 seems already begun. The sap is rising in the 

 dry and dead-like branches, the bads are begin- 

 ning to swell, and their hardened, dry scales 

 to expand and make way for the growth of 

 the tender leaf; the frost-bound clod is thawing, 

 and the soft buds, and seeds, and roots within, 

 are quickening into life. Soon the bare branches 

 of the forests and hedge-rows are to be clad in 

 the green livery of spring, and the whole fea- 

 thered tribes, as if in anticipation of this change, 

 are making joyful preparations for the season 

 of love. 



This is the period when the feathered song- 

 sters are in full note, and many birds which are 

 silent or rarely heard at other seasons, now 

 enliven the period of the opening year with 

 their cheerful invitation to their mates. The 

 pairing of birds, while it lasts, has something so 

 much akin to the social and domestic duties and 

 affections of the human race, that they excite a 

 sympathy such as we cannot extend to other 

 animals. 



With the earliest indications of approaching 

 spring, each feathered songster is seen to seek its 

 mate ; and the pair thus associated together, 

 remain faithful to each other until they have 

 reared a young brood, and seen them fledged, 

 and perfectly capable of providing for their own 

 subsistence ; nor is the union always limited to 

 the single season. Some birds have been known 

 to return year after year, and repair and occupy 

 the same nest. In a wood in the neighborhood 

 of Cumbernauld House, Dumbartonshire, in the 

 vicinity of some extensive lime quarries, a pair 

 of magpies were observed to build in a large 

 beech tree for several successive years, and one 

 of the birds having been caught and marked, 

 it was seen to return to the same nest for six 

 successive seasons thereafter, most probably also 

 with the same mate. Mr. Rennie has noted 

 another magpie's nest which continued thus 

 successively occupied, season after season, for 

 ten years ; and though a brood of four or five 

 young ones was reared each season, all of them 



disappeared from the neighborhood, as if recog- 

 nising it as the exclusive property of the old pair. 



There is something exceedingly lively and 

 pleasing in the cheerful notes of birds in the 

 spring time. However unmusical their voices 

 may be, their notes convey so much the idea of 

 industrious happiness and the full enjoyment of 

 life, that few indeed will fail to derive rapturous 

 pleasure from the sounds. The twittering of the 

 swallow, the chirp of the sparrow, and even the 

 incessant cawing of the rook, seem all to harmo- 

 nise with the reviving life of nature, and to add 

 a new charm to the season of spring. 



" The swallow," Sir Humphry Davy remarks, 

 " is one of my favorite birds, and a rival of the 

 nightingale ; for he glads my sense of seeing, as 

 much as the other does my sense of hearing. 

 He is the joyous prophet of the year, the harbin- 

 ger of the best season ; he lives a life of enjoy- 

 ment among the loveliest forms of nature ; 

 winter is unknown to him, and he leaves the 

 green meadows of England in autumn, for the 

 myrtle and orange groves of Italy, and for the 

 palms of Africa." 



The migratory habits here referred to, and 

 which are common to so many of the birds that 

 visit us in the spring, and another remarkable 

 feature to the fact of their return, year after year, 

 to the same locality. It is, indeed, scarcely 

 possible to conceive of a more marvellous and 

 unerring instinct than that which guides the 

 little swallow, or a less powerful bird, back 

 over nearly a quarter of the globe, returning 

 unerringly at the appointed season, and finding 

 its way over land and ocean, to the precise spot in 

 the old tree or meadoiv, or under the sheltering 

 eave where its nest has been renewed from year 

 to year. 



PHBENOLO&Y FOE THE MILLION. 



"He who opposes his own judgment against the con- 

 sent of the times, ought to be backed with unanswerable 

 Truths ; and he who has Truth on his side is a tool, 

 as well as a Coward, if he is afraid to own it because of 

 the currency or multitude of other men's opinions." — 

 Defoe. 



No. IL— THE LIFE OF DR. GALL. 



"We have already, in an Introductory Chapter 

 (see page 129), prepared the minds of our in- 

 telligent readers for an intellectual treat of an 

 almost unimaginable kind ; nor will they be dis- 

 appointed, however high their expectations may 

 be raised. 



It has even now become evident, that the pro- 

 posal to embody the Works of the great Philoso- 

 pher, Dr. Gall, in our columns, is hailed with 

 enthusiasm far and near, — the more so, as Ave 

 have promised to offer observations, and append 

 Notes as we go on, when ever such may be con- 

 sidered needful or advisable. 



Only let this great Philosopher be fairly re- 

 presented, and let the Reason God has given us 

 be properly exercised, and we shall find Society 

 rapidly advancing in the intellectual scale — and 

 no less rapidly than safely, for this must be ever 

 uppermost in our thoughts. 



We will sift everything, and prove everything, 



