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The TANAGER touch'd with much feeling his lute; The diminutive TODY (") was there in green suit.

pointed bill, the gape of the mouth reaching beyond; nostrils oblong; hind toe turned forward. The chief are as follow:

The Ethereus, or COMMON-TROPIC-BIRD, has the head, neck, and beneath white; back, rump, and less wing-feathers, streaked with white, mixed with black; two middle tail feathers black at the base; bill three inches long; size of a widgeon, yet its length, with the tail, two feet ten inches; flies very high; feeds on fishes; often seen on the backs of tortoises; seldom on land, except at breeding time; inhabits the tropics. Two other varieties.

"Though faster than the tropic-bird they flew."

GRAINGER'S Sugar Cane, Book iii.

The Melanorhynchos, or BLACK-BILLED-TROPIC-BIRD, has the bill black; is above streaked with black and white; beneath white; nineteen and a half inches long; inhabits Palmerston and Turtle islands.

The Phoenicurus, or RED-TAILED-Tropic-Bird, is of a rosy flesh-colour; bill red; length two feet ten inches, of which the two middle tail feathers, which are red, measure one foot nine inches; builds in hollows in the ground, under trees; eggs two, yellowish-white, with rufous spots. Inhabits the Mauritius island.

(27) Order, PICÆ, (Linn.) TODY, the GREEN, the KING, &c.

The genus ToDus, (Linn.) or TODY, consists of nearly thirty species, mostly inhabiting the warmer parts of America; they have a subulate, depressed, obtuse, straight bill, covered at the base with bristles; feet gressòrial; this tribe are nearly allied to the fly-catchers, but have the middle and outer toes much connected, which in the fly-catchers are divided at the base. The chief are the following:

The Viridis, orGREEN-TODY, Green-Sparrow, Green-Humming

Woke his flute to wild cadence the RED-BREASTED

THRUSH,

And the sweet, shy WOOD-ROBIN* was heard with a "hush!""

He, rehearsing his strain, in the woodlands apart,
Touch'd with magical sympathy many a heart,
And, at length, his rich notes, bursting forth into song,
Thus arrested, in silence, the listening throng:

Bird, or Ground-Parakeet, has the upper parts of the body in the female green, in the male blue; size of a wren; the bill is red; back light-blue; belly white; the throat and sides a beautiful rose-colour; the claws are long and hooked, adapted to scoop out holes in the ground, where it takes up its abode and builds its nest, which it lines with straw, moss, cotton, and feathers; eggs grey, with deep yellow spots; the young is fed with insects and small worms: inhabits St. Domingo.

The Regius, or KING-TODY, is blackish-brown, reddish beneath; crest chesnut, spotted with white at the tip; chin and eyelids white; bill dusky-brown; breast with transverse blackish lines; legs flesh-colour. This singular and beautiful species inhabits Cayenne; it is, however, a very rare bird; seven inches long.

The Platyrhyncos, or BROAD-BILLED-TODY, is yellowishbrown, beneath yellow; chin and spot on the crown white; wings and tail brown; bill very large and broad; size of the nightingale.

The Obscurus, or OBSCURE-TODY, is olive-brown; beneath yellowish-white; size of the hedge-sparrow; found in North America; feeds on insects.

* For an account of this bird and the Red-breasted-Thrush, see the WOOD-THRUSH'S EVENING SONG.

THE WOOD-ROBIN'S MORNING SONG.*

Turdus Melodus.-(WILSON.)

LIBERTY, Liberty, dearest of treasure-
Give me of freedom an o'erflowing measure!

Columbia Columbia! the HOME of the FREE,
Who of the earth is so happy as THEE?

Peace with her olive branch waving her hand-
One brotherhood binds thee, my dear NATIVE LAND!

Made were thy PRAIRIES, Woods, Mountains, and

THEE,

For us, and for MAN, too-a HOME for the FREE.

Liberty, Liberty, dearest of treasure

Give me of freedom an o'erflowing measure!

* The reader will be so obliging as to recollect that the Wood-Robin and the Wood-Thrush is the same bird: the evening song of this charming bird is, therefore, that entitled the Wood-Thrush's Evening Song; the two names have been adopted both for euphonious convenience and variety. The following lines, used as a simile in Carrington's Twin's Lament, are very descriptive of the locality of this bird's nest: a coincidence, of course, purely accidental.

"His home,

-A quiet nest embosom'd deep

In woods of some soft valley, where the hand
Of plunderer comes not, and the sudden gale
But seldom slirieks, and silence sweetly spreads
O'er all her downy wing."

TO THE WOOD-ROBIN.

Turdus Melodus.-(WILSON.)

Yes, BIRD of melodious note! unto THEE
Shall ever be sacred the HOME of the FREE!

There may LIBERTY flourish-extend her broad shade,
And KNOWLEDGE delight in the HOME she hath made.
And oh! might a WISH for the welfare of men
Be heard, and prevail over mountain and glen,
Where the fierce tropic sun rolls his chariot along,
And SLAVERY still dwells western regions among;
Then, should gentle BENEVOLENCE, warm from the
heart,

Flow in streams of PERSUASION-pure lessons im

part

Then, should TRUTH and should JUSTICE together be

found;

And knowledge diffuse far her radiance around ;The SLAVE become FREE, and his MASTER his

FRIEND;

And thus HAPPINESS widely her blessings extend.
Yes, BIRD of melodious note! unto THEE,

Unto man, too, be sacred the HOME of the FREE!*

* See this subject farther pursued in the piece towards the conclusion of this work, entitled the HILL OF FREEDOM.

Of mercy the emblem in annals of fame,

With her pouch full of fish, the WHITE PELICAN (2)

came;

(28) Order, Anseres, (Linn.) Pelican, Cormorant, Shag, BOOBY, FRIGATE-PELICAN, GANNET.

The genus PELECANUS, (Linn.) or PELICAN, comprehends nearly forty species scattered over the globe, three or four common to this country. The bill is long, straight, hooked at the end; nostrils an obliterated slit; toes four, palmate. These birds are extremely expert at catching fishes with their long bills, and are often tamed for this purpose. They are gregarious and voracious. The following are the principal:

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The Onocrotalus, WHITE-PELICAN, or Pelican, is white, gullet pouched; bill red, from fifteen to sixteen inches long; upper mandible depressed, broad, the lower forked; the gular pouch is flaccid, membranaceous, of a red or yellowish colour, and capable of great distention; head naked, at the sides covered with a flesh-coloured skin. It is by far the largest of the genus, the wings, when extended, being from ten to twelve feet; the pouch, which will contain when distended ten quarts of water, answers the purpose of a crop, and is used by the bird to contain food both for itself and for its young, which, when hatched, are fed with the fishes which have been for some time macerated in the pouch. This bird is easily tamed; but it is a disagreeable and useless domestic, and its flesh unsavoury. Whatever food is given it, it always first commits to the pouch, and afterwards swallows at leisure. It is universally spread over all the warm latitudes of both the old and new continents; has been seen, although rarely, in this country. In Asia they are pretty numerous, migratory, and fly in wedge-shaped flocks. Eggs two or more, white, the size of those of a swan; time of incubation the same as that bird. Great numbers are killed for their pouches, which are converted by the native Americans into purses, &c. When carefully prepared, the membrane is as soft as silk, and sometimes is embroidered by the Spanish ladies for

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