in the red. The eyes are fenced with a protuberant skin, of a livid colour; and they are gray or ash coloured.

This bird, like the rest of the auk kind, has its legs thrown so far back, that it can hardly move without tumbling. This makes it rise with difficulty, and subjects it to many falls before it gets upon the wing; but as it is a small bird, not much bigger than a pigeon, when it once rises, it can continue its flight with great celerity.

The Puffins build no nest: but lay their eggs either in the crevices of rocks, or in holes under ground near the shore. They generally choose the latter situation. Relying on its courage, and the strength of its bill, with which it bites most keenly, it either makes or finds a hole in the ground, wherein to lay or bring forth its young. It lays only one egg.

The males perform the office of sitting, and relieving their mates when they go to feed. The young are hatched in the beginning of July. When they are excluded, the parent's industry and courage are incredible. Few birds or beasts will venture to attack them in their retreats. When the great searaven comes to take away their young, the Puffins boldly oppose him, and a singular combat takes place. As soon as the raven approaches, the Puffin catches him under the throat with its beak, and sticks its claws into his breast, which makes the raven, with a loud screaming, attempt to get away; but the little bird still holds fast to the invader, nor lets him go till they both come to the sea, where they drop down together, and the raven is drowned; yet the raven is but too often successful, by invading the Puffin at the bottom of its hole, and so devouring the Puffin and its family.

The Kamtschadales and Kuriles wear round their necks the bills of Puffins, in the belief that, while they continue to do so, good fortune will be sure to attend them.

So much difference is there between this bird when on land and in the water, that it is hardly to be supposed the same, for in the latter, no bird can possibly exceed it for beauty and majestic appearance. When it ascends from its favourite element, its motions are awkward, and its neck is stretched forward with an air of stupidity; it has, indeed, the air of being only a larger sort of goose; but when seen smoothly gliding along the water, displaying a thousand graceful attitudes, and moving at pleasure without the smallest apparent effort, there is not a more beautiful figure in all nature. In its form, we find no broken or harsh lines; in its motions, nothing constrained or abrupt; but the roundest contours, and the easiest transitions; the eye wanders over the whole with unalloyed pleasure, and with every change of position every part assumes a new grace. It will swim faster than a man can walk.

This bird has long been rendered domestic; and it is now a doubt whether there be any of the tame kind in a state of nature. The colour of the tame swan is

entirely white, and it generally weighs full twenty pounds. Under the feathers is a very thick soft down, which is made an article of commerce, for purposes of both use and ornament. The windpipe sinks down into the lungs in the ordinary manner; and it is the most silent of all the feathered tribes; it can do nothing more than hiss, which it does on receiving any provocation. In these respects it is very different from the wild or whistling swan.

This beautiful bird is as delicate in its appetites, as it is elegant in its form. Its chief food is corn, bread, herbs growing in the water, and roots and seeds, which are found near the margin. At the time of incubation it prepares a nest in some retired part of the bank, and chiefly where there is an inlet in the stream. This is composed of water plants, long grass, and sticks: and the male and female assist in forming it with great assiduity. The Swan lays seven or eight eggs, white, one every other day, much larger than those of a goose, with a hard, and sometimes a tuberous shell. It sits six weeks before its young are excluded; which are ash coloured when they first leave the shell, and for some months after. It is not a little dangerous to approach the old ones, when their little family are feeding round them. Their fears, as well as their pride, seem to take the alarm, and when in danger, the old birds carry off the young ones on their back. A female has been known to attack and drown a fox, which was swimming towards her nest; they are able to throw down and trample on youths of fifteen or sixteen; and an old Swan can break the leg of a man with a single stroke of its wing.

Swans were formerly held in such great esteem in England, that, by an act of Edward the Fourth, none, except the son of the king, was permitted to keep a Swan, unless possessed of a freehold to the value of five marks a year. By a subsequent act, the punishment for taking their eggs was imprisonment for a

year and a day, and a fine at the king's will. At present they are not valued for the delicacy of their flesh; but numbers are still preserved for their beauty. Many may be seen on the Thames, where they are esteemed royal property, and it is accounted felony to steal their eggs. On this river, as far as the conservancy of it belongs to the city, they are under the care of the corporation; and at certain times the lord mayor, the aldermen, &c. proceed up the Thames, to what is commonly called the Swan-hopping, to mark the young birds. The Swan is a long-lived bird, and sometimes attains the age of a hundred years.

WILD GEESE abound in the fens of Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, and several other counties of England, and are not supposed to migrate in this country, as in some parts of the Continent. During the day they seldom rest, and are seen flying at a great height, in flocks of from fifty to a hundred. So lofty is their flight that they are often heard when they are invisible; and it is conducted with the utmost regularity,

as they always proceed either in a line abreast, or in two lines forming an angle in the middle.

The common TAME GOOSE is nothing more than the Wild Goose in a state of domestication. It is sometimes found white, though much more frequently verging to gray; and it is a dispute among men of taste, which should have the preference.

These birds, in rural economy, are an object of attention and profit, and are no where kept in such vast quantities as in the fens of Lincolnshire; several persons there having as many as a thousand breeders. They are bred for the sake of their quills and feathers; for which they are stripped while alive, once in the year for their quills, and no less than five times for the feathers: the first plucking commences about Lady Day, for both; and the other four between Lady Day and Michaelmas. It is said that in general the birds do not suffer much from this operation; except cold weather sets in, which then kills great numbers of them. The old Geese submit quietly to be plucked, but the young ones are very noisy and unruly. The possessors, except in this cruel practice, treat their birds with kindness; lodging them very often even in the same room with themselves.

These Geese breed in general only once a year, but if well kept they sometimes hatch twice in a season. During their sitting, each bird has a space allotted to it, in rows of wicker pens placed one above another; and it is said that the gozzard, or gooseherd, who has the care of them, drives the whole flock to water twice a day, and bringing them back to their habitations, places every bird in its own nest. The numbers of Geese which are sent to the metropolis for sale are enormous, two or three thousand being frequently seen in a drove, and some droves having even contained more than nine thousand.