would, indeed, be better entertained on the high road. But did you see William ?

Rob'ert. We set out together, but he lagged behind in the lane, so I walked on and left him.

Tutor. That was a pity. He would have been company for you.

Robert. O, he is so te'di-oùs, always stopping to look at this thing and that! I would rather walk ålōne. I dare say he has not got home yet.

Tutor. Here he comes. Well, Will'iam, where have you been?

William. O, the pleasantest walk! I went all over Broomheath, and so up to the mill at the top of the hill, and then down among the green meadows by the side of the river.

Tutor. Why, that is just the round Rob'ert has been taking, and he complains of its dulness, and prefers' the high road. William. I wonder at that. I am sure I hardly took a step that did not delight me; and I have brought home my hand'ker-chief* full of curiosities.

Tutor. Suppose, then, you give us an account of what amused you so much. I fancy it will be as new to Rob'er

as to me.

William. I will do it readily. The lane leading to the heath, you know, is close and sandy, so I did not mind i much, but made the best of my way. However, I spied a curious thing enough in the hedge. It was an old crabtree out of which grew a great bunch of something green, quite different from the tree itself. Here is a branch of it.

Tutor. Ah! this is mis'tle-tõe, a plant of great fame, fo the use made of it by the Drū'ids of old, in their religiou rites and incantations. It bears a very slimy white berry of which birdlime may be made, whence the Latin word viscus. It is one of those plants which do not grow in the ground, by a root of their own, but fix themselves upor other plants; whence they have been hū'mor-ous-ly style pur-a-siti-cal, as being hangers-on, or dependents. It wa the mistletoe of the oak that the Drū'ïds particularly hon aured.

William. A little further on, I saw a green woodpecke fly to a tree, and run up the trunk like a cat.

Tutor. That was to seek for insects in the bark, on whic

Will'iam. What beautiful birds they are!

Tutor. Yes; they have been called, from their colour and size, the Engʻlish* păr'rót.

Will'iam. When I got upon the open heath, how charming it was! The air seemed so fresh, and the prospect on every side so free and unbounded! Then it was all covered with gay flowers, many of which I had never obşĕry'ed before. There were at least three kinds of heath, (I have got them in my hand'ker-chief here,) and gôrse, and broom, and bell-flower, and many others of all colours, of which I will beg you presently to tell me the names.

Tutor. That I will readily.

William. I saw, too, several birds, that were new to me. There was a pretty grayish one, of the size of a lark, that was hopping about' some great stones; and when he flew, he showed a great deal of white above his tail.

Tutor. That was a wheat-car. They are reckoned very delicious birds to eat, and frequent' the open downs in Sus'sex, and some other counties, in great numbers.

William. There was a flock of lapwings upon a marshy part of the heath, that ămüş'ed me much. As I came near them, some of them kept flying round and round just over my head, and crying pewit so distinctly, one might almost fancy they spoke. I thought I should have caught one of them, for he flew as if one of his wings was broken, and often tumbled close to the ground; but as I came near, he always contrived to get away.

Tutor. Hà, hà! you were finely taken in, then! This was all an artifice of the bird's to entice you away from its nest; for they build upon the bare ground, and their nests would easily be observ'ed, did not they draw off the attention of intruders, by their loud cries and counterfeit lameness.

William. I wish I had known that, for he led me a long chace, often over shoes in water. However, it was the cause of my falling in with an old man and a boy, who were cutting and piling up turf for fuel; and I had a good deal of talk with them, about' the manner of preparing the turf, and the price it sells at. They gave me, too, a creature I never saw before-a young viper, which they had just killed, together with its dam. I have seen several common snakes, but this is thicker in proportion, and of a darker colour than they are.

Tutor. True. Vipers frequent' those turfy, boggy grounds

* Ing'glish.

pret'ty* much, and I have known several turf-cutters bitten by them.

William. They are very venomous, àre they not?

Tutor. Enough so to make their wôûnds painful and dāngerous, though they seldom prove fatal.

William. Well-I then took my course up to the windmill on the mount. I climbed up the steps of the mill in order to get a better view of the country round. What an extensive prospect! I counted fifteen church steeples! and I saw several gentlemen's houses peeping out from the midst of green woods and plantations; and I could trace the windings of the river all ălõng' the low grounds, till it was lost behind a ridge of hills. But I'll tell you what I mean to do, if you will give me leave.

Tutor. What is that?

William. I will go again', and take with me Ca'rey's county map, by which I shall probably be able to make out most of the places.

Tutor. You shall have it, and I will go with you, and take my pocket spying glass.

William. I shall be very glad of that. Well-a thought struck me, that as the hill is called Camp-mount, there might probably be some remains of ditches and mounds, with which I have read that camps were surrounded. And I really believe I discovered something of that sort running round one side of the mount.

Tutor. Very likely you might. I know antiquaries have described such remains as existing there, which some suppose to be Rō'măn, others Da'nish. We will examine them further when we go.

William. From the hill I went straight down to the meadows below, and walked on the side of a brook that runs into the river. It was all bordered with reeds, and flags, and tall flowering plants, quite different from those I had seen on the heath. As I was getting down the bank to reach one of them, I heard something plunge into the water near me. It was a large water-rat, and I saw it swim over to the other side, and go into its hole. There were a great many large dragon flies all about' the stream. I caught one of the finest, and have got him here in a leaf. But how I longed to catch a bird that I saw hóv'ering over the water, and every now and then darting down into it! It was all

some orange colour.

It was somewhat less than a thrush,

and had a large head and bill, and a short tail.

Tutor. I can tell you what that bird was a kingfisher, the celebrated hal'cy-ón* of the ancients, about' which so many tales are told. It lives on fish, which it catches in the manner you saw. It builds in holes in the banks; and is a shy, retired bird, never to be seen far from the stream where it inhabits.

William. I must try to get another sight of him, for I never saw a bird that pleased me so much. Well, I followed this little brook till it entered the river, and then took the path that runs along the bank. On the opposite side, I observ'ed several little birds running along the shore, and making a pi-ping noise. They were brown and white, and about' as big as a snipe.

Tutor. I suppose they were sand-pipers, one of the numerous family of birds that get their living by wa'ding ǎmóng the shallows, and picking up worms and insects.

William. There were a great many swâl'lows, too, sporting upon the surface of the water, that entertained me with their motions. Sometimes they dashed into the stream; sometimes they pursued one another so quickly that the eye could scarcely follow them. In one place, where a high steep sand-bank rose di-rectly above the river, I observ'ed many of them go in and out of holes, with which the bank was bored full.

Tutor. Those were sand-martins, the smallest of our four species of swallows. They are of a mouse-colour ǎbove, and white beneath. They make their nests, and bring up their young in these holes, which run a great depth, and by their situation àre secure from all plunderers.

William. A little further I saw a man in a boat, who was cătch'ing eels in an odd way. He had a long pole, with broad iron prongs at the end, just like Něp'tune's trident, only there were five instead of three. This he pûsh'ed straight down into the mud, in the deepest parts of the river, and fetched up the eels sticking between the prongs.

Tutor. I have seen this method. It is called, spearing of eels.

William. While I was looking at him, a héron came flying over my head, with his large flagging wings. He alighted at the next turn of the river, and I crept scftly behind the bank to watch his motions. He had waded into the water *hăl'she-un.

G2

as far as his long legs would carry him, and was standing with his neck drawn in, looking intently on the stream. Presently he darted his long bill as quick as lightning into the water, and drew out a fish, which he swallowed. I saw him catch another in the same manner. He then took ǎlàrm at some noise I made, and flew away slowly to a wood at some distance, where he settled.

Tutor. Probably his nest was there, for herons build upon the loftiest tree they can find, and sometimes in society together, like rooks. Formerly, when these birds were val ued for the ǎ-müşe'ment of hawking, many gentlemen had their heronries; and a few àre still remaining.

William. I think they are the largest wild birds we have. Tutor. They are of a great length and spread of wing, but their bodies are comparatively small.

William. I then turned homewards across the meadows, where I stopped ǎwhile to look at a large flock of starlings, which kept flying about' at no great distance. I could not tell at first what to make of them; for they rose all together from the ground as thick as a swarm of bees, and formed themselves into a kind of black cloud hovering over the field. After taking a short round they settled again', and presently rose again' in the same manner. I dare say there were hundreds of them.

Tutor. Perhaps' so; for in the fenny countries, their flocks àre so numerous, as to break down whole acres of reeds, by settling on them. This disposition of starlings to fly in close swarms, was remarked even by Hō'mer, who compares the foe flying from one of his heroes, to a cloud of starlings retiring dismayed at the approach of the hawk.

William. After I had left the meadows, I crossed the cornfields in the way to our house, and pass'ed close by a deep marl-pit. Looking into it, I saw, on one of the sides, a cluster of what I took to be shells; and upon going down, I picked up a clod of marl, which was quite full of them; but how sea shells could get there, I cannot imagine.

Tutor. I do not wonder at your surprise, since many phi los'o-phers have been much perplexed to account for the same appearance. It is not uncommon to find great quânti-ties of shells and relicks of marine animals, even in the