RECOLLECTIONS OF GENERAL PUTNAM. "IN the winter of 1757, when Col. Haviland was commandant of fort Edward, the barracks adjoining to the northwest bastion took fire. They extended within twelve feet of the magazine, which contained three hundred barrels of powder. On its first discovery, the fire raged with great violence. The commandant endeavoured, in vain, by discharging some pieces of heavy artillery against the supporters of this flight of barracks, to level them with the ground. Putnam arrived from the island where he was stationed, at the moment when the blaze approached that end which was contiguous to the magazine. Instantly, a vigorous attempt was made to extinguish the conflagration. A way was opened by a postern-gate to the river, and the soldiers were employed in bringing water; which he, having mounted on a ladder to the eaves of the building, received and threw upon the flame. It continued, notwithstanding their utmost efforts, to gain upon them. He stood, enveloped in smoke, so near the sheet of fire, that a pair of thick blanket-mittens were burnt entirely from his hands-he was supplied with another pair dipped in water. Col. Haviland, fearing that he would perish in the flames, called to him to come down. But he entreated that he might be suffered to remain, since destruction must inevitably ensue if their exertions should be remitted. The gallant commandant, not less astonished than charmed at the boldness of his conduct, forbade any more effects to be carried out of the fort, animated the men to redoubled diligence, and exclaimed, "If we must be blown up, we will all go together." At last, when the barracks were seen to be tumbling, Putnam descended, placed himself at the interval, and continued from an incessant rotation of replenished buckets to pour water upon the magazine. The outside planks were already consumed by the proximity of the fire, and as only one thickness of timber intervened, the trepidation now became general and extreme. Putnam, still undaunted, covered with a cloud of cinders, and scorched with the intensity of the heat, maintained his position until the fire subsided, and the danger was wholly over. He had contended for one hour and a half with that terrible element. His legs, his thighs, his arms, and his face were blistered; and when he pulled off his second pair of mittens, the skin from his hands and fingers followed them. It was a month before he recovered. The commandant, to whom his merits had before endeared him, could not stifle the emotions of gratitude, due to the man who had been so instrumental in preserving the magazine, the fort, and the garrison." "A few adventures, in which the public interests were little concerned, but which, from their peculiarity, appear worthy of being preserved, happened before the conclusion of the year. As one day, Major Putnam chanced to lie, with a batteau and five men, on the eastern shore of the Hudson, near the rapids, contiguous to which fort Miller stood; his men on the opposite bank had given him to understand, that a large body of savages was in his rear, and would be upon him in a moment. To stay and be sacrificed-to attempt crossing and be shot-or to go down to the falls, with an almost absolute certainty of being drowned, were the sole alternatives that presented themselves to his choice. So instantaneously was the latter adopted, that one man who had rambled a little from the party, was, of necessity, left, and fell a miserable victim to savage barbarity. The Indians arrived on the shore soon enough to fire many balls on the batteau before it could be got under way. No sooner had our batteau-men escaped, by favour of the rapidity of the current, beyond the reach of musket-shot, than death seemed only to have been avoided in one form, to be encountered in another, not less terrible. Prominent rocks, latent shelves, absorbing eddies, and abrupt descents, for a quarter of a mile, afforded scarcely the smal lest chance of escaping without a miracle. Putnam, trusting himself to a good Providence, whose kindness he had often experienced, rather than to men, whose tenderest mercies are cruelty, was now seen to place himself sedately at the helm, and afford an astonishing spectacle of serenity: his companions, with a mixture of terrour, admiration, and wonder, saw him incessantly changing the course, to avoid the jaws of ruin, that seemed expanded to swallow the whirling boat. Twice he turned it fairly round to shun the rifts of rocks. Amidst these eddies, in which there was the greatest danger of its foundering, at one moment the sides were exposed to the fury of the waves; then the stern, and next the bow, glanced obliquely onward, with inconceivable velocity. With not less amazement the savages beheld him sometimes mounting the billows, then plunging abruptly down, at other times skilfully veering from the rocks, and shooting through the only narrow passage; until, at last, they viewed the boat safely gliding on the smooth surface of the stream below. At this sight, it is asserted, that these rude sons of nature were affected with the same kind of superstitious veneration, which the Europeans in the dark ages entertained for some of their most valorous champions. They deemed the man invulnerable, whom their balls (on his pushing from shore) would not touch, and whom they had seen steering in safety down the rapids that had never before been passed. They conceived it would be an affront against the Great Spirit, to attempt to kill this favoured mortal with powder and ball, if they should ever see and know him again." "In the battle of Princeton, Capt. M'Pherson, of the 17th British regiment, a very worthy Scotchman, was desperately wounded in the lungs and left with the dead. Upon General Putnam's arrival there, he found him languishing in extreme distress, without a surgeon, without a single accommodation, and without a friend to solace the sinking spirit in the gloomy hour of death. He visited and immediately caused every possible comfort to be administered to him. Capt. M'Pherson, who contrary to all appearances recovered, after having demonstrated to Gen. Putnam the dignified sense of obligations which a generous mind wishes not to conceal, one day in familiar conversation demanded-' Pray, sir, what countryman are you?' 'An American,' answered the latter. 'Not a Yankee!' said the other. A full-blooded one,' replied the general. By G-d, I am sorry for that,' rejoined M'Pherson, 'I did not think there could be so much goodness and generosity in an American, or, indeed, in anybody but a Scotchman.' ” THE above group of animals consists of a scapegoat, and young bullock, goat and kid of goats, which were used by the highpriest of Israel, for a sinoffering. See Levit. xvi. 10, et seq. The scape-goat is the large white one above figured with a riband or fillet tied around his horns. "Let him go for a scape-goat into the wilderness." A commentator holds the following language on this text: 1 rusalem and the temple service,) that the goat was taken to a place about twelve miles from Jerusalem where there was a formidable rocky precipice; and they add, that for this occasion a sort of causeway was made between Jerusalem and this place, and that ten tents with relays were stationed at cqual distances between them. On arriving at the precipice the goat was thrown down from its summit, and, by knocking against the projections, was generally "The Rabbins inform us, that after the lot had been dashed to pieces before it had half reached the bottaken, the highpriest fastened a long fillet, or narrow tom. It is added that the result of this execution piece of scarlet to the head of the scape-goat; and was promptly communicated, by signals, raised at that after he had confessed his own sins and those proper distances, to the people who were anxiously of the people over his head, or (for we are not quite awaiting the event at the temple. It is also said, certain about the point of time,) when the goat was that at the same time a scarlet riband, fastened at finally dismissed, this fillet changed colour to white the entrance of the temple, turned red at this instant if the atonement were accepted by God, but else of time, in token of the divine acceptance of the exretained its natural colour. It is to this that they un- piation; and that this miracle ceased forty years bederstand Isaiah to allude when he says:-Though fore the destruction of the second temple. We do your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; not very well understand whether this fillet is a vathough they be red like crimson, they shall be as riation of the account which places one on the head wool.' (Isaiah i. 18.) After the confession had of the goat, or whether there were two fillets, one been made over the head of the scape-goat, it was for the goat and the other for the temple. If the committed to the charge of some person or persons, latter, we may conclude that the change took place previously chosen for the purpose, and carried away simultaneously in both. However understood, it is into the wilderness; where, as we should under- very remarkable that the Rabbins, who give this acstand, verse 22, it was set at liberty; but the Rab- count of the fillets, assign the cessation of the mirbins give a somewhat different account. They in-acle by which the divine acceptance of this expiaform us, (speaking with a particular reference to Je- tion was notified, to a period precisely corresponding with the death of Christ-an event which most somewhere else than in the creature itself, from the Christians understand to have been prefigured by fact that the action performed in this perfect manner atoning sacrifices, which they believe to have been by the organized animal, is not the result of the ordone away by that final consummation of all sacri-ganization, neither is the organization the result of ficial institutions. The assertion of the apostle, that action. A cormorant does not catch fish by dashing without the shedding of blood there is no remission into the water, and following them to a greater or less of sin, (Heb. ix. 22,) renders the account of the depth, as may be necessary, because its feet, its Rabbins that the goat was finally immolated, rather wings, its bill, and all the other parts of its organiza than left free in the wilderness, far from improbable, tion, are fitted for such purposes, any more than it were it not discountenanced by verse 22. It is how-throws the fish up in the air, because it has a knowlever possible that the Jews may have adopted the edge that the fish will come down in a more manusage described when they settled in Canaan, and ageable posture for swallowing than that in which it could not so conveniently as in the wilderness carry is seized by the bill. As little can we say that the the goat to a land not inhabited. But they allow bill has or can have any control over what its organthat it sometimes escaped alive into the desert, and ization shall be, for the organization precedes the was usually taken and eaten by the Arabs, who, of action in the order of nature. The instinct follows course, were little aware of what they did." the race, and is true to it; which we find is not the case either in knowledge or in action with us Therefore, when we examine the more curious func tions which are performed by the lower animals, (as we term them,) we meet with far more striking evi dences of Almighty wisdom and power than we do in the case of human conduct. There are no productions which assist us more in the forming of these general views than those birds which seek their food in the waters; and as the cormorants find their food by skill and energy, not by craft, there are few seabirds better worth our attention. THE CORMORANT.-Pelicanus carbo. "Cormorants are sometimes called sea-ravens, or sea-crows, and they have nearly the same voracity as the land-ravens, though their prey and manner of catching it are both very different. Cormorants generally fish near the shores, and are more frequently on the wing over the water than at rest upon the rocks. When they pursue their prey in the sea, they do not hesitate in coming near inhabited places; but when they fish in the fresh waters, they choose more lonely haunts. They catch their prey, which consists wholly or chiefly of fish, by the middle with the bill; and as they cannot easily swallow it from this position, or indeed, if it is presented to the gullet in any other way than head foremost, they throw it -into the air and seize it with great dexterity as it falls. All birds which fish along the surface of the water, and indeed all animals which swallow their prey without masticating or dividing it with the teeth, are dexterous at this mode of turning a fish. This is one of the most remarkable instances of adaptation with which we meet in nature, and ought to teach us to look for the intelligence of the creature The characters of the genus are as follows:-The bill long, or of mean length, compressed, rounded in the culmen, straight for the greater part of its length, but much hooked at the tip of the upper mandible, and having the extremity of the lower one truncated, so as to act against the hook. The base of the bill has a small cere, and the naked skin is continued on the throat, and partially also on the face. The nostrils are at the brow of the bill, in the form of longitudinal slits, and barely visible. The legs are stout, the tarsi short, and rather inclined toward each other. The hind toes are turned inward, and included in the web of the feet; the outer toe is the longest and strongest in the foot; the claws are not large for the size of the foot, and that on the middle toe is toothed on the edge. The wings are of rather more than mean length, and they are rather pointed, the second quill being the longest. They are not, however, formed for whirling and turning rapidly in the air; and the rounded extremity of the tail further shows, that whirling in the air is not one of the principal actions of the bird. The Pelicanus carbo, or common cormorant, is common on the British shores, and in some places it moves inland to the lakes which are near the sea, or to the larger rivers, which have long tideways. In these last situations, it is often found standing or nestling on trees; but as a sea-bird, its place of repose and nestling is the rocks. Sou st This is a large bird: three feet in length, nearly five feet in the extent of the wings, and weighing as much as seven pounds; but this must be considered as the dimensions of a large specimen, and the sizes are apt to vary. Length of the bill about five inches and of a dusky colour for the greater part of its length, but with the cere yellow; tarsi, toes, and webs sooty black; irides bright green. The plumage varies a little with the season. General colour, greenish black, with black margins to the feathers on the back, and a line of ash colour on the scapulars. In the breeding season, the neck and thighs are mottled | southern parts of the same, we believe principally with small white feathers, and there is a crest of confined to Africa, though it also occurs in the south long green feathers on the back of the head. In of Asia. winter these feathers fall off, and the general teint of the upper part becomes rusty. There is also a white gorget on the neck, which becomes much duller in the colour during winter. Though these birds are generally found in remote and inaccessible places for their nests, such as high trees and detached rocks, they are social with each other, and many nests are often found in the near vicinity of each other. The eggs are three or four in number, of about two ounces in weight, greenish white, and with the surface of the shell rather rough. Though cormorants are industrious and successful fishers, and as such, thin the waters of their finny inhabitants to a considerable extent, yet they pursue their fishing with peace and good order, and never interfere with or annoy any other birds. It can be tamed very readily; and a detailed account of one in a domesticated state may be found in Montagu's Ornithological Dictionary." THE COMMOM HOOPOE.-Upupa epops. THE hoopoes are inhabitants of the banks of rivers, chiefly of those rivers which are alternately flooded and low, from the alternation of rain and drought. There they feed upon beetles, and other ground insects, and on the spawn of fishes and reptiles. The number of insects which they capture is very great; so that they render no unimportant services to those countries which they frequent, from their activity; they are necessarily voracious feeders, and their nests are somewhat rank with the remains of their abundant food, as is the case with the bee-eaters, the kingfishers, and most of those birds of powerful wing and frequent flight which haunt the margins of the rivers. As is the case with most, if not all of the section, the hoopoes are very handsome birds, fine in their forms and graceful in their motions. 'There are only two species of them, one of which ranges for a considerable extent over the tropical and northern parts of the eastern hemisphere, over the The common hoopoe (U. epops) is a very beautiful bird, measuring about a foot in length, and a foot and a half in the stretch of the wings, and weighing about three ounces. On the upper part, it is of a rust colour, or rather of a vinous red, with the wings and tail black, crossed with two white bands on the wing-coverts, and four on the quills; the tail is crossed by a crescent-shaped bar of white; and the crest-feathers, which are orange, tipped with black, formed of two rows, and capable of being erected at the pleasure of the bird, give the bird a handsome appearance; the head, neck, and breast, are brownish red, and the rest of the under parts are whitish, streaked with brown. These birds are very discursive with the seasons; they chiefly winter in Africa, at least in the European longitudes, while in the eastern part they find their way southward to India. In the south of Europe they appear in considerable numbers, generally in small flocks, which arrive in the extreme south about the month of March, but they do not make their way to the middle latitudes until the end of the spring, and they retire again at the close of summer. In Britain they appear only as occasional stragglers, and, from the season at which some of them have been obtained, one would be led to suppose that they are strays, who have lost the proper line of migration, and so cannot find their way back again to the south. Within these few years one was shot in Cornwall, England, in the month of December, which is more than three months later than the time when the regular migrants depart from central Europe. Their straggling into this country bears some resemblance to that of the beeeaters, pratincoles, and other birds which belong to the central valley of the eastern continent, much more than to the countries on the shores of the Western sea. We look for our regular migrant birds in the warmth of summer only, or chiefly, in the southern parts of the country; but such a bird as the hoopoe is just as likely to occur in Caithness as in Cornwall, and in the Orkneys or the Hebrides, as in the isles of the Channel. In the eastern parts of the continent they range much farther to the north on their summer excursions, and are not uncommon in Russia, or even in Siberia. This might, however, be expected; for, though the winters there are exceedingly cold, and the summers of short duration, those short summers are very warm, and the country is thronged with such animals as those upon which the hoopoes feed. Hoopoes, and also some of the other birds which most resemble them in haunts, habits, and character, are understood to make a sort of perpetual summer of it, unless in the case of such strays as happen to fall upon our winter, by missing the line and time of their migration. In consequence of this, the birds are understood to breed two or three times, or even more frequently, according to circumstances, in the course of the year. The nest is described as being rather miscellaneous in its position, but, true to those migrant birds of the banks of rivers, always in some sort of concealment. It may be in a hollow tree, among the tangled roots near the ground, in a hole of a wall, or a crevice of the rock; and though the female does adapt her labour in building so as slight this ancient celebrity, however, and the pains which were taken to perpetuate specimens of the carcass of this animal, those schemes did not accomplish their purpose; and in times comparatively modern, there have not only been disputes about which spe cies is the sacred ibis, but some have contrived to ly to improve the less commodious places, yet she is no very skilful nest-builder; and the extent of her labour usually goes no farther than collecting, first, a few withered leaves, and then a few feathers. The hatch varies much in number, being as many as seven when the situation and season are peculiarly favourable, and not more than two when circumstan-mystify the matter to such an extent, that, if we did ces are the reverse. In Egypt and several other parts of Africa, the birds frequent the meadows in the close vicinity of human dwellings; but on their northern excursions, they are rather fond of solitary places. In Egypt, indeed, they are greatly encouraged, for their labours in destroying the insects with which the humid banks of the Nile are infested, and accordingly they are as familiar and have their nests as much intermixed with the dwellings of the people as the common house-swallows have with us. The eggs are oblong, of a bluish white colour, and marked with small spots of pale brown. The young have to be fed før a considerable time in the nest, and the feeding of them is rather a laborious occupation for their parents. As is the case with all birds of similar habits, the hoopoes have no song, but they have a sort of three calls; one a hollow booming note thrice repeated without modulation; another a little more musical, but still not modulated, which is the love-song; and a sharp hissing note, which is the sound of alarm. In their low flight they jerk on the wing, flirting the tail at the same time; and when alarmed, they erect the crest and spread the tail fanwise. They are very easily tamed, and can be made to remain without confinement if they are properly fed. Their flesh is eaten in the south of Europe, but is not understood to be of much value." not possess the living bird to which we can appes for its own history, we should have remained ignorant as to what bird received those high honours in the olden time. Bruce was the first who, in modern times, gave an accurate account of the bird; but it was not until other evidence had been produced in corroboration of his statements, that he received the credit to which he is so well entitled. This bird is not confined to Egypt, but is very generally distributed throughout Africa. It is a bird about the size of a common fowl, with the plumage entirely white, except the quills, the points of which are black, and the last coverts of the wings have long and slender barbs also of a black colour, and with violet reflections, which hag down over the extremities of the closed wings, and the tail, the bill and feet are also black, and so is the naked skin on the head and neck. These birds are very common in the central parts of Africa, and also in that part of the valley of the Nile which is liable to be flooded. Sometimes they are found solitary, and at other times they are found in groups, but seldom more than ten or twelve are in close society with each other. A number of these little groups are, however, often found close to each other, especially after the water of the Nile has begun to subside, and the banks are for some extent covered with soft mud. This mud they search with the most patient industry with their bills; and in moving about while on the ground they do not hop and run nimbly as the curlews do, but march along with measured steps; when on the wing they project the head forward and the feet backward; but there is not the same majesty in their aërial journeys as there is in those of the storks and cranes, neither do they extend their migration so far to the northward. Their flight is powerful, however, and they rise to a great elevation. It does not appear that there is a very great deal of foundation for that clearing of the country of poisonous reptiles, on account of which the Egyptians are said to have held the ibis in such veneration; for the chief ground adduced for this propensity in the old account given by Herodotus, is the antipathy which the ibis had to the serpent race. In consequence of this the bird is said to have acted the part of a sort of preventive service, to hinder the serpents from smuggling themselves into the Egyptian territory. Now this is so contrary to the whole tenour of animal conduct, that it can hardly, in the nature of things, be true. Animals do not kill each "THIS bird has been very celebrated from compar- other from what we call antipathy, unless in the atively remote antiquity, for its real or supposed ser- case of those males which fight battles of gallantry vices to the ancient Egyptians,. in destroying offen- for their females we believe the propensity goes sive and poisonous reptiles, and generally for seav- no farther; and the greater number of them, whether engers' work done about the temples and houses. mammalia or birds, are vegetable feeders, and never For these reasons it was admitted into the temples kill other animals for the sake of eating. On the themselves among the numerous other animal-gods other hand, we believe there is no animal which of the Egyptians; and mummies of it were pre-kills, or even offers to injure, any other species, exserved with the same assiduous labour of embaim- cept for the purpose of feeding on that species; and, ing as those of men and monkeys. Notwithstanding therefore, if the ibis have been a serpent-feeder, it |