"They always feed upon the wing. In calm and warm weather they soar to an immense height, pursuing the large insects called musquito hawks, and performing the most singular evolutions that can be conceived, using their tail with an elegance of motion peculiar to themselves. Their principal food, however, is large grasshoppers, green caterpillars, small snakes, lizards, and frogs. They sweep close over the fields, sometimes seeming to alight for a moment to secure a snake, and, holding it fast by the neck, carry it off and devour it in the air. When searching for grasshoppers and caterpillars, it is not difficult to approach them under cover of a fence or tree. When one is killed, the whole flock fly over the dead bird as if intent on carrying it off. An excellent opportunity is thus afforded of shooting as many as may be wanted; and I have killed several in this manner, firing as fast as I could load my gun. Its courtships take place on the wing, and its motions are then more beautiful than ever. The nest is usually placed on the top branches of the tallest oak or pine, situated near a stream or pond. The male and female sit alternately, the one feeding the other."

The Buzzards are a sluggish and filthy tribe, cowardly, and feeding for the most part on the remnants left by nobler birds, and such carrion as may fall in their way.

Different varieties are found in almost all parts of the world, and in some places a heavy penalty is incurred by those who destroy them, as they are highly prized as scavengers by the municipal authorities. Wilson succeeded in taking prisoner one of the variety known as the American Buzzard. It lived several weeks, but utterly refused to eat, preferring death by starvation to captivity.

The Harriers, or, as they are sometimes called, Harpies, are of a smaller size than any of the birds of prey yet noticed. They fly very low, and generally find their food upon the ground among mice, moles, frogs, and young rabbits. The largest variety is that of which we give an engraving, (No. 9.) It is called the Marsh Harrier, and is a native of Great Britain; but there are varieties in all quarters of the globe. He is a most skillful rat-catcher, seizing on any incautious rat who may expose himself to view. He is a wild, untameable bird, and although frequently taken captive, has seldom, if ever, been so subdued as to become familiar or friendly.

"In the autumn," says an English naturalist, "partridges suffer much from the harrier. As soon as the corn is cut, this bird appears and hunts the whole of the low country in the most determined and systematic manner. Flying at the height of only a few feet from the ground, he crosses the fields in every direction. Nor does he waste time in hunting useless ground, but tries turnip-field after turnip-field, and rush-field after rush-field passing quickly over the more open ground where he thinks his game is not so likely to be found. The moment he sees a bird he darts rapidly to a

height of about twenty feet, hovers for a moment, and then comes down with unerring aim upon his victim, striking him dead with a single blow, and showing a strength not to be expected from his light figure and slender, though sharp talons."

The large and respectable family of Owls now claims our attention. In their character and habits they are recluse, solitary, and mysterious, with discordant voices, heard only in the silence of night,

and in lonely places. They are, with many, subjects of superstitious awe. The Snowy Owl (figure 10) is remarkable for its pure white plumage, and is indigenous to the Arctic regions, whence it migrates, occasionally, to warmer latitudes; seldom passing, however, to the southward of the colder portions of the temperate zone. The Barn Owl (No. 11) is the most common variety, and is found throughout Europe, Asia, and America. It is sometimes called the Screech-Owl, and is by many

deemed a bird of ill omen. Shakspeare calls it

"The fatal bellman,

Which gives the sternest good-night." The Great Eagle-Owl, the largest of the genus, is found in Russia and Germany, but is rarely seen in France or England. It inhabits clefts of the rocks, and seldom descends into the valleys; occasionally, though seldom, flying abroad in the day-time. It preys mostly in the twilight, and feeds not only on mice and rats,

but even on rabbits, hares, and fawns. Their attachment to their young is very great. A pleasing instance is related by a French naturalist, who had succeeded in taking prisoner a young one, which he confined in a hen-coop. The next morning, to his surprise, he found a dead partridge lying at the door of the coop. The same thing was done for fourteen successive nights, the parent birds having been attracted by the cry of their lost offspring, and resolutely watching their opportunity, succeeded in furnishing it with food without being discovered. "An eagle-owl in my possession," says a naturalist, "remains quiet during the day, unless he is shown some prey, when he becomes eager to possess it, and when it is put within his reach at once clutches it, and retires to a corner to devour it at leisure. During the night he is extremely active, and sometimes keeps up an incessant bark. It is so similar to that of a cur or terrier, as to annoy a large Labrador house-dog, who expresses his dissatisfaction by replying to him, and disturbing the inmates nightly.

I, at first, mistook the cry of the owl for the barking of a dog, and sallied forth to find him; and it was not until tracing the sound to the cage, that I became satisfied of the author of the annoyance."

A very curious variety of this species of birds is one that is known as the Burrowing Owl. They differ from others of the tribe in not shunning the daylight, but rejoicing, apparently, in the noon-day sun. They are natives of the United States, and are found in great numbers in our trans-Mississippian territory. They make their nests exclusively in the villages of the marmot, or prairie dog, whose excavations are so commodious as to render it unnecessary that they should dig for themselves. These villages are very numerous, often spreading over the country for miles together. They are composed of mounds, slightly elevated, about two feet in width and eighteen inches high. It is thought by Sury that the marmot and burrowing owl are joint occupants of these curiously-con| structed residences; not, indeed, by consent of the former, but by right of conquest on the part of the owl, who makes use of the labors of the marmot, and either turns him out of his own house or shares it with him. In those places where they find no dwellings prepared by the industry of others they burrow for themselves, and have the reputation of being good work

men.

The Egyptians, it is said, represented Minerva under the form of an owl. Hence it has been called the Bird of Wisdom, and is certainly remarkable for the gravity and solemn sedateness of its appearance. It tries to look wise, and has an air of great sagacity. The ancient Athenians selected the owl as the figure for their coins: and, contrary to every other people, regarded its presence as an omen of good fortune.

In our next chapter we shall introduce a much more extensive, and, in some respects, a more interesting class of the feathered tribes, including the sweet songsters of the woods and groves.

of the silk-worm. Both banks of the river Gorgan and Etrek, the province of Asterabad, that of Mazenderan, Tunekabune, Guilan, Talich, Chirvan, all those countries that lie upon or near the Caspian shore, produce much silk. But it is Guilan which justly has the reputation of being the model country for silk-husbandry in these latitudes.

The raw silks of Guilan, after having supplied the manufactures in Persia, go to Russia and Constantinople, whence they spread through Europe, and even into America. The annual export amounts to nearly $2,800,000, two-thirds of which go into English manufactures, the rest into French and Russian. There are already three commercial houses at London, one at Manchester, one at Marseilles, and one at Paris, which are exclusively occupied in the trade of Guilan silks, and to these we propose to confine our remarks.

The Guileks trace the origin of silkhusbandry among them back to biblical

rewards the man who suffers patiently They say that the first couple of silkworms came from the sores of the prophet Job, (Ayoub.) This myth, the name of Nesrani, (Nestorian,) which is borne by the best kind of cocoons in Guilan, and the well known date (A. D. 530) of the arrival in Constantinople of the eggs of the silkworm from China, all assist in determining the epoch in which this worm commenced being raised among the Guileks. It is known that in the early days of Christianity, and up to the fourteenth century, the Nestorians sent their missionaries, their priests, and their bishops into all the countries of Asia. They aided the monks of the Emperor Justinian in conveying to him the silk-worm, and it is probably owing to them that it was introduced into Guilan toward the close of the eighth century, a time when the relations of this country with China are found among the records of our ecclesiastical history. Assemani says positively that in A. D. 778 the