THE VOICE OF NATURE. 
Who could not sleep in this embowered room 
Perched high above the suffocating ground ; 
Where clinging vines, and tree-tops in their 
bloom 
Cast grateful shade and fragrance all around ; 
When, added to the magic spell of flowers, 
The night bird's song fills up the witching 
hours! 
Who could not rise refreshed at early dawn 
In this same sweet, enchanted nook ; 
When, to the half-unconscious ear is borne, 
From Lark and Robin, Sparrow, Thrush and 
Rook, 
The gentle warning of the opening day- 
God's earliest sermon to humanity! 
What soul could feel the burdening weight of sin 
When, from these tiny, upraised throats, 
The songs of Nature's praise begin 
And Heavenward pour, in liquid dulcet notes! 
We gladly join our grateful voice to theirs 
And turn our thoughts to God in earnest prayers. 
E. D. Barron. 
IN THE ANIMAL WORLD. 
The organs of smell in a Vulture 
and a Carrion Crow are so keen that 
they can scent their food for a distance 
of forty miles, so they say. 
The wings of birds are not only to 
aid locomotion in the air, but also on 
the ground and water. One bird even 
has claws in the " elbows " of its 
wings to aid in climbing. 
The Elephant does not smell with 
his trunk. His olfactory nerves are 
contained in a single nostril, which is 
in the roof of the mouth, near the 
front. 
Humming Birds are domesticated 
by placing in their cages a number of 
paper flowers of tubular form, contain- 
ing a small quantity of sugar and 
water, which must be frequently 
renewed. Of this liquid the birds 
partake and quickly become apparently 
contented with their captivity. 
Rightly considered, a Spider's web 
is a most curious as well as a most 
beautiful thing. When we were chil- 
dren, the majority of us supposed that 
the Spider's web was pulled out of its 
mouth, and that the little insect had a 
large reel of the stuff in his stomach, 
and that he could almost instantly add 
feet, yards, or rods to the roll. The 
facts are that Spiders have a regular 
spinning machine — a set of tiny tubes 
at the far end of the body — and that 
the threads are nothing more nor less 
than a white, sticky fluid, which 
hardens as soon as it comes in contact 
with the air. The Spider does not 
really and truly " spin," but begins a 
thread by pressing his " spinneret " 
against some object, to which the 
liquid sticks. He then moves away 
and by constantly ejecting the fluid 
and allowing it to harden, forms his 
ropes or wonderful geometrical nets. 
Birds have separate notes of warn- 
ing to indicate whether danger is in 
the shape of a Hawk or a Cat or a 
man. If a Cat, a Hawk, or an Owl is on 
the move, the Birds, especially Black- 
birds, always utter a clattering note, 
constantly repeated, and Chickens 
have a special sound to indicate the 
presence of a Hawk. But when dis- 
turbed by man the Blackbirds have 
quite a different sound of alarm and 
the Chickens also. 
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