clawed like those of other birds, but flat, like the nails of a man. Its true distinctions, however, are to be taken rather from its manner than its form. The crane has a loud piercing voice; the stork is silent, and produces no other noise than the clacking of its under chap against the upper: the crane has a strange convolution of the windpipe through the breast bone; the stork's is formed in the usual manner: the crane feeds mostly upon vegetables and grain; the stork preys entirely upon frogs, fishes, birds, and serpents: the crane avoids towns and populous places; the stork lives always in or near them: the crane lays but two eggs, and the stork generally four. These are distinctions fully sufficient to mark the species, notwithstanding the similitude of their form.

It was probably on account of the description of food upon which this bird preys, that it was prohibited as an article of food to the Jewish people, Lev. xi. 19, &c.

The Hebrew name of the stork, is strikingly characteristic of its disposition, signifying benignity or affection, for which it is remarkable, as is attested by the most unexceptionable witnesses.

Parkhurst has given an interesting description of the stork from the Inspector, a periodical paper ascribed to that eminent naturalist, Sir John Hill, which sets this feature in its character in a strong and beautiful light.

'The two parents feed and guard each brood; one always remaining on it, while the other goes for food. They keep the young ones much longer in the nest than any other bird; and after they have led them out of it by day, they bring them back at night; preserving it as their natural and proper home.

'When they first take out the young, they practise them to fly ; and they lead them to the marshes, and to the hedge-sides, pointing them out the frogs, and serpents, and lizards, which are their proper food; and they will seek out toads, which they never eat, and take great pains to make the young distinguish them.' At the time of their return, after having visited some warmer climate during the winter months, this writer states, that it is not uncommon to see several of the old birds, which are tired and feeble with the long flight, supported at times on the back of the young; and the peasants speak of it as a certainty, that many of these are when they return to their home, laid carefully in the old nests, and fed and cherished by the young ones, which they reared with so much care during the spring before.'

To the protection which the stork affords her young, there is evidently an allusion in Job xxxix, 13: 'The wing of the ostrich is quivering or expanded: [but] is it the wing of the stork and its plumage? That is, is it, like that, employed in protecting and providing for the creature's offspring? No: for 'she (the ostrich) depositeth her eggs in the earth, and warmeth them on the sand, and forgetteth that the foot may crush them, and that the wild beast of the field may break them.' This leads us to notice the as

sertion of the Psalmist, that 'the fir trees are the house of the stork,' Ps. civ. 17.

Like the crane, the stork is a bird of passage; and to its periodical migration the prophet Jeremiah refers, ch. viii. 7. Shaw furnishes us with a proof of their surprising instinct in preparing for their journey, which is worthy of notice. It is observed of the storks, when they 'know their appointed time,' that, for about the space of a fortnight before they pass from one country to another, they constantly resort together, from all the circumjacent parts, in a certain plain; and there, forming themselves once every day into a douwanne, or council (according to the phrase of these Eastern nations,) are said to determine the exact time of their departure, and the place of their future abodes.'

THE Hebrew name of this curious bird is evidently taken from its manner of discharging the contents of its bag or pouch, for the purpose of satisfying its own hunger, or that of its young.

The Pelican is much larger than the swan, and something resembles it in shape and color. The principal difference, and that which distinguishes this bird from all others, is its enormous bill and extraordinary pouch. From the point of the bill to the opening of the mouth, there is a length of fifteen inches; and under the chap is a bag, reaching the entire length of the bill to the neck, and capable, it is said, of holding fifteen quarts of water. When empty, this pouch is not seen; but when filled, its great bulk and singular appearance may easily be conceived. The Pelican, says Labat, has strong wings, furnished with thick plumage of an ash color, as are the rest of the feathers over the whole body. Its eyes are very small when compared to the size of its head; there is a sadness in its countenance, and its whole air is melancholy; it is as dull and reluctant in its motions as the flamingo is sprightly and active. It is slow of flight; and when it rises to fly, performs it with difficulty and labor; nothing, as it would seem, but the spur of necessity, could make these birds change their situation, or induce them to ascend into the air: but they must either starve or fly. When they have raised themselves about thirty or forty feet above the surface of the sea, they turn their head with one eye downwards, and continue to fly in that posture. As soon as they perceive a fish sufficiently near the surface, they dart down upon it with the swiftness of an arrow eize it with unerring certainty, and store it up in their pouch. They then rise again, though not without great labor, and continue hovering and fishing, with their head on one side as before.

In feeding its young, the pelican squeezes the food deposited in its bag into their mouths, by strongly compressing it upon its breast with the bill; an action, says Shaw, which might well give occasion to the received tradition and report, that the pelican, in feeding her young, pierced her own breast, and nourished them with her blood.

The writer of the hundred-and-second psalm alludes to the lonely situation of the pelican in the wildernesss, as illustrative of the poignancy of his own grief, at witnessing the desolation of his country, and the prostration of her sacred altars.

THE CORMORANT.

THIS bird, which was unclean to the Hebrews (Lev. xi. 17; Deut. xiv, 17) is about the size of a large Muscovy duck, and may be distinguished from all other birds of this kind, by its four toes being united together by membranes, and by the middle toe being toothed or notched, like a saw, to assist it in holding its fishy prey. Its head and neck are of a sooty blackness, and the body thick and heavy, more inclining in figure to that of the goose than the gull. The bill is straight, till near the end, where the upper chap bends into a hook.

But notwithstanding the seeming heaviness of its make, there are few birds more powerfully predacious than the corinorant. Formed with the grossest appetites, this unclean bird has the most rank and disagreeable smell, and is more fœtid, even when in its most healthful state, than carrion. Its form, says an ingenious writer, is disagreeable; its voice is hoarse and croaking; and all its qualities obscene. No wonder, then, that Milton should make Satan personate this bird, when he sent him upon the basest purposes, to survey with pain the beauties of Paradise, and to sit devising death on the tree of life. It has been remarked, indeed, of our poet, that the making a water fowl perch on a tree, implied no great acquaintance with the history of nature. But, in vindication of Milton, it must be observed, that Aristotle expressly says, the cormorant is the only water fowl that sits on trees; so that our epic bard seems to have been as deeply versed in natural history as in criticism.

The cormorant is trained up in China, and other parts of the world, for the purpose of taking fish, after which it dives with great dexterity and perseverance.

DUBIOUS BIRDS.

THE CUCKOO.

We believe that the bird called in Hebrew shacheph, and in our version 'cuckoo,' has never yet been properly identified. Bochart, and the versions generally, decide in favor of the sea-mew; but this can hardly be admitted, since the shacheph is placed by the Hebrew legislator, not among water birds, but among those of the air, and also among birds of prey, Levit. xi. 16. The latter circumstance seems also decisive against the bird which has been made to take its place in the English Bible. Dr. Shaw thinks that the bird intended is a granivorous and gregarious bird, of which he gives a particular account, and also an engraving.