MlSCELLANt. 
ing their starting-post the railings of the bridge crossing the water. The bird hjr 
no means invariably returns to the same spot after each capture, as—if we re¬ 
member rightly—some authors affirm. The Grey Flycatcher, though a plain, 
is a handsome bird, and considering that the adults are scarcely spotted at all, 
the pretty mottling of the young birds is a little remarkable. This bird is some¬ 
times called the Spotted Flycatcher; but this is obviously objectionablej as it can 
only apply to young birds before the first moult.—En. 
Uses op the Sheep. —That Sheep of some species or other were bred for their 
skins and milk in the earliest ages of the world, we have the testimony of the 
Inspired Volume to prove* Whether the antediluvian flocks were of the same 
species as our own—whether the wool had at that early period assumed the 
curled crisp character which it at present possesses—these and other questions, how¬ 
ever interesting, cannot now receive even a plausible reply. We know that the 
young of the Sheep constituted the victim of the earliest sacrifices, and that the 
same animal was the most important, because the most clearly typical subject of 
the Jewish offerings. It does not appear that it was anciently a favourite arti¬ 
cle of food; nor is it in the present day, excepting in this country, esteemed so 
highly as some other kinds of meat. But in all countries, and in all ages, it has 
constituted one of the most useful animals which has ever been reduced under 
the immediate domination of mankind, from the exceeding value of its woolly 
covering, as the basis of the most wholesome and comfortable and durable articled’ 
of clothing, and for its milk, which it yields in considerable abundance, and 
which is at once pleasant and highly nutritious. 
There probably is not a species- amongst all our domestic animals which in its 
historic relations is so interesting as the Sheep. Its early domestication, its em¬ 
ployment as the subject of the first sacrifices, its typical character as an offering 
of atonement, its importance as forming the principal wealth of the early pa¬ 
triarchs—its various connexions, in short, with the political, the religious, and the 
domestic customs of those primitive magnates of the Jewish nation, are all of 
them subjects affording ample food for deep and delightful reflection. The rela¬ 
tion which existed between the patriarchal shepherds and their flocks was indeed 
of so intimate and even affectionate a nature, as to have afforded the subject of 
many of the most beautiful and touching parables and moral illustrations in the 
Sacred Writings. It is scarcely necessary to refer to the unequalled appeal of 
Nathan to DaviH, to the still higher and prophetic allusion to the character of 
the Messiah, or to the sublime illustration of the beneficence of “ the great Shep¬ 
herd of Israel,” in the beautiful and well-known pastoral psalm. These are sub¬ 
jects which cannot be discussed here; but it is impossible to pass them wholly 
without notice. But the historical interest attached to this animal does not stop 
here. The customs observed in the treatment of their flocks by the shepherds 
