"In Brazil, where I (the Viscount himself attests the relation) am resident, and through a considerable portion of which I have travelled, there are many species of birds, numerous in their kind, whom instinct impels to this emigra tion, which is not occasioned by the vicissitades of the seasons, since as far as the thirteenth degree of southern latitude, where there is a vast number of birds of passage, there is no difference of climate, although there is a great difference of season, as respects the production of fruits; and we see these birds, like the wandering hordes of wild Tartars, change their abode when the nutriment which is necessary to their existence becomes scarce. Even aquatic birds, which feed on fish, remove from one spot to another, whither the variation in the currents of the sea or of rivers transports, at different periods of the year, a greater number of fish.

"One fact which proves the power of instinct in brutes, and which I could not have credited, had I not myself observed it, is the following: The interior of the province Seará, is, like the other provinces of Brazil, stocked with farms for the breed of cows, sheep, and horses, and is situated on a soil subject to frequent drought. The herds, which during the summer are meagre, and illfed on grass scorched even to blackness by the intense heat of the sun, look forward to the rainy season, which regufarly commences in those quarters in December, or January, the dry and

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withered herbage becoming on a sudden green and flourishing. No sooner do the herds perceive from their exhausted region, the electric fluid dart in the opposite horizon, than, aware that the early showers descend amidst thunder and lightning, they put themselves in motion towards the part where they saw the atmosphere illumined. They traverse mountains, rivers, and deserts, in order to reach the succulent pasture, which they are certain of finding in that spot: at length they luxuriate on the first shoots of the rising grass, but as soon as they behold the lightning also sparkle in the horizon of their native plains, they return to drink in the streams, and to feed on the soil where they first drew the light of day; performing in this manner journeys of sixty, eighty, and often of an hundred leagues without guide or compass. How many marks of consciousness are manifest in these facts! The notion and idea of their own unpleasant situation; the hope of a better; the certainty of reaching the land of plenty, by following the gleam of lightning, the agent of rain; the change of place, with the view of deriving the benefit which the fertility of these plains offers; and the natural impression of fondness for their native spot, to which the herds yield, when they return to it in its renascent state, braving the claws of the ounce and the tiger, the precipices of the road, and the floods of the mighty rivers."

NWO neat little volumes under this title, have appeared, and monthly numbers in succession are announced. As specimens of the work we select a few extracts.

GEORGE I.

During the siege of fort St. Phillip, a young lieutenant of marines was so unfortunate as to lose both his legs by a chain shot. In this miserable and helpless condition he was conveyed to England, and a memorial of his case presented to an honourable board; but nothing more than half-pay could be

obtained. Major Manson had the poor lieutenant conveyed to court, on a public day in his uniform; where posted in the anti-room, and supported by two of his brother officers, he cried out as the king was passing to the drawingroom, "Behold, great sire, a man who refuses to bend his knee to you; he has lost both in your service." The king struck no less by the singularity of his address, than by the melancholy object. before him, stopped and hastily demanded what had been done for him. "Half-pay," replied the lieutenant,

himself. Reader excuse a tear of gratitude. The name of the boy saved was-REUBEN PERCY.

PATRICK HENRY.

When Patrick Henry, who gave the first impulse to the ball of the American Revolution, introduced his celebrated resolution on the stamp act into the House of Burgesses of Virginia (May 1765), he exclaimed, when descanting on the tyranny of the obnoxious act, "Cæsar bad his Brutus; Charles the First his Cromwell; and George the Third-"(" Treason," cried the speak er; "treason, treason," echoed from every part of the house. It was one of those trying moments which are decisive of character. Henry faultered not for an instant; but rising to a loftier attitude, and fixing on the speaker an eye flashing with fire, continued, "may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most of it."

NAVAL ORATORY.

Admiral Blake, when a captain was sent with a small squadron to the West Indies on a secret expedition against the Spanish settlements. In an engagement one of his ships blew up, which damped the spirits of his crew; but Blake, who was not to be subdued by one unsuccessful occurrence, called outto his men, "Well, my lads, you have

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seen an English ship blown up; and now let's see what figure a Spanish one will make in the same situation." This well-timed harangue raised their spirits immediately, and in less than an hour he set his antagonist on fire. "There, my lads," said he, "I knew we should have our revenge soon."

SLEEPERS REproved.

A methodist preacher once observing that several of his congregation had fallen asleep, suddenly exclaimed with a loud voice," A fire! a fire!" " Where! where!" cried his auditors, whom he had roused from their slumbers. hell;" added the preacher: "for those who sleep under the ministry of the holy gospel."

"In

Another preacher, of a different persuasion, more remarkable for drowsy preachers, finding himself in the same unpleasant situation with his auditors, or,more literally speaking,dormitory.suddenly stopped in his discourse, and addressing himself in a whispering tone to a number of noisy children in the galle"y, "Silence, silence, children,” said be; "if you keep up such a noise, you will awake all the old folks below."

Upon the whole, these are entertaining books for the grown up lovers of anecdotes, and excellent presents for children.

HIS celebrated artist was born in the year 1751, in the village of Possagno, in the Venetian States. He very early evinced a genius for the art in which he has since become so distinguished. When only twelve years of age, he modelled a lion in butter, and sent it to the table of the rich Signior Falieri, who was a liberal encourager of the young artist's rising talent. At the age of seventeen, Canova executed a Eurydice, half the size of life. He then left his instructor, a sculptor of Bassano, and went to study at the Venetian Academy of Fine Arts, where he obtained several prizes. In

1779, the Venetian senate expressed their approval of the talent be displayed in a groupe of Dædalus and Icarus, by presenting him with the sum of 300 ducats, and sending him to finish his studies in Rome. He first distinguished himself in that capital by his Theseus seated on the vanquished Minotaur, which has been very well engraved by Morghen. A groupe of Cupid and Psyche was the first production which afforded an ideaof the originality of Canova's taste in the expression of the softer affections. This was followed in close succession by the groupe of Venus and Adonis; the Mausoleum

accordingly waited on Mr. Northcote a day or two after, when the latter gentleman had an opportunity of returning the compliment by relating the following anecdote: When Northcote was in Venice in the winter of 1779 he went to see the pictures in one of the palaces, and observed on the staircase a marble groupe of modern sculpture, the extraordinary excellence of which astonished him. He immediately turned and expressed his admiration of it to Mr. Prince Hoare, by whom he was accompanied. He enquired what sculptor could have produced so exquisite a work, and received for answer, that it was the performance of a young man of that city, named Canova, who was considered a promising genius. Canova had been some time in England before he saw the new Waterloo Bridge; and when he accidentally passed by it he expressed his regret at not having sooner had an opportunity of admiring what he regarded as one of the greatest curiosities this country possesses; he declared it to be unquestionably the finest bridge in Europe. During his short visit to this country, he obtained such a vast number of commissions, that he is said to despair of ever being able to fulfil them. Several specimens of his talent are already in this country, and a Venus, in the possession of the Marquess of Lansdowne, may, perhaps, be reckoned among the most success ful of his works. On his return to Italy, he was commissioned by the Pope to restore to their former situations the works of art which had just arrived from Paris.

On his arrival he was received with every honour. The academy of St. Luca went in a body to meet him, and the Pope, at a solemn audience, on the 5th of January, 1816, delivered to him, with his own hands, a paper, announ

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cing the enrolement of his name in the book of the capitol. He was shortly after created Marchese d'Ischia, with a pension of 3,000 Roman crowns. Canova has occasionally turned his attention to the study of painting, and he executed several pictures, one of which has been engraved; the subject is a Venus reclining on a Couch and holding a Mirror. He has also painted a portrait of himself. Among his bas reliefs, perhaps the most remarkable is that representing the city of Padua, under the form of a female. Canova's genius has been fostered by the writings of the ancient authors. It is his constant practice to have some one to read to him while he is occupied in the execution of his works. The characteristics of his style of sculpture are originality, facility, and fertility of execution. Among his most celebrated works may be reckoned, a Statue of Napoleon's Mother, in the character of Agrippina: a Venus rising from the Bath; a Statue of the Princess Borghese, half draped, reclining on a couch, with her head resting on one hand, and an apple in the other the bust of Pope Pius VII.; the bust of Emperor Francis II.; and a monument to the he memory of his friend Valputo, an engraver. Canova has been blamed by some critics for endeavouring to impart to his statues an air of reality, and of heighening their resemblance to nature by artificial means unconnected with the province of sculpture; namely by colouring the eyes, lips, &c.; a practice quite unusual among modern sculptors. This, bowever, he manages with so much delicacy, that it is scarcely perceptible, and if it do not, as many maintain, impart an additional charm to the statue, it is at least certain that Canova never suffers the colouring to obtrude so as to become offensive to the eye.

wide-mouthed phial, together with one of those large spiders so common in the West Indies, and closed it with a cork,