BIRDS.

Orders 1, 2, and 3.

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BIRDS are divided into six orders, viz.-' Birds of prey; 2 Sparrow-like birds; Climbing birds; Fowl-like birds; Wading birds; and Web-footed birds.

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BIRDS OF PREY.-Birds of prey form the first order of the class. They are known by their powerful hooked bill and talons, by which they are enabled to kill other birds, and even small quadrupeds and reptiles. They are divided into two families, the first of which seek their food by day. Vultures, eagles, falcons, hawks, buzzards, and kites, compose this family. Their eyes are directed sideways; the base of the beak, in which the nostrils are situated, is covered with a skin; the plumage is dense, and the quills strong.

The different kinds of owls, which seek their food by night, form the second family. Their eyes are very large, and directed forwards instead of sideways; their wings are not very vigorous, and their feathers, being covered with a fine down, make little or no noise in flying; they are thus enabled to steal on their prey without exciting the least alarm, and the unsuspecting mouse is seized at the entrance of its hole.

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SPARROW-LIKE BIRDS.-Sparrow-like birds compose the second order. They are more numerous and various than any others, but as an order they have no great peculiarity. They are divided into five families. The first, like the noble birds of prey, have a notch on each side of the tip of the upper mandible. They live on insects, worms, &c. Butcher-birds, flycatchers, thrushes, and warblers, belong to this family.

The second family feed chiefly on insects while on the wing, have short and weak feet, and large gaping mouths Swallows and goat-suckers compose it. The former are

diurnal, and the latter nocturnal birds. The third family have a strong conical bill, and live chiefly on grain and fruit. Larks, buntings, finches, starlings, crows, and birds of paradise, belong to it.

The fourth family have a slender bill, and their tongue is often divided at the tip into numerous filaments, and is used for sucking up the honey from the nectaries of flowers. Creepers, humming birds, and hoopoes belong to this family. The fifth and last family have all their toes united at the base. It consists of beeeaters, king-fishers, and hornbills.

CLIMBING BIRDS compose the third order. Instead of having three toes before and one behind, like most, they have two each way. This arrangement materially assists them in holding fast on the trunk or branch of a tree, and in climbing. Woodpeckers, wrynecks, cuckoos, toucans, and parrots, belong to this order.

Woodpeckers feed on insects found in and under the bark of old trees. To get at them these birds are furnished with a wedge-shaped bill, with hard points, and a long, slender, slimy tongue, having hair upon it turned backwards. This they thrust into the hole in which the insects are concealed, and then withdraw it with them adhering. The movements of the bill and tongue are so rapid that the eye can scarcely follow them. The wryneck can protrude its tongue in the same manner as the woodpecker; and it is used for the same purpose; but the bill is not sufficiently strong to chisel wood or tear bark.

The common cuckoo has long been celebrated for laying its eggs in the nests of other birds; and the foster parents bestow as much care upon the young cuckoo as upon their own nestlings.

1. Accipitres, accipiter, a hawk.

Passeres, passer, a sparrow. 3. Scansores, scando, I climb. 4. Gallinaceæ, gallina, a hen.

ORDKRS.

5. Grallæ, grallæ, stilts.

6. Palmipedes, palmus, palm or hand, pes, the foot.

ITALY.

Roman History.

THE city of Rome stands on the river Tiber, in Italy. Its distance from the sea is about sixteen miles. It is supposed to have been founded by Romulus, in the year 2752 B. C. Romulus was the captain of about three thousand banditti, or outlaws. These men built some huts on a hill called the Palatine, and enclosed them with a wall. This was the origin of the most famous city the world ever saw.

The first government of Rome consisted of a king and *senate. Romulus was chosen king, and reigned thirtyseven years. There are different accounts of the way in which his reign terminated.

The second king of Rome was Numa Pompilius. He was a wise and good king, and a great lover of peace. He spent forty-three years in making excellent laws, and in instructing the people in agriculture and other useful

arts.

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The peaceful Numa was succeeded by Tullus Hostilius. He was a warlike monarch. During his reign the Romans engaged in hostilities with the Albans, who inhabited a neighbouring city.

It was agreed that the war should be decided by a battle between three champions on each side. In the army of the Albans there were three brothers, each named Curiatius and in the Roman army there were likewise three, by the name of Horatius.

1. Vide Root. 2. 3252 years after the creation, when Hoshea and Ahaz reigned over the Jews, and just preceding the captivity of the ten tribes. 3. Rome subsequently included seven hills. 4. When Romulus formed the

5. This was a Republic.

senate, he called the members Patres, or fathers, and their descendants were called Patricians. 6. These succeeded in banishing some of the principal men of Rome, one of whom, Coriolanus, joined the Volsci, and when on the point of taking Rome, was dissuaded by his mother and wife, to whom he said, "You have gained Rome, but lost your son."

These Horatii and Curiatii were fixed upon as the champions. The Romans obtained the victory, one of the Horatii only surviving the combat.

After the death of Tullus Hostilius, the Romans elected Ancus Martius to be king. He was succeeded by Tarquin the Elder, whose father had been a rich merchant. The next king was Servius Tullius. When Servius had reigned forty-four years, he was murdered by Tarquin, his son-in-law, who was ambitious of being king.

When Tarquin the Proud had reigned more than twenty years, he and his family were driven out of Rome.

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The 'expulsion of the Tarquins took place in the year 509 before the Christian era. The Romans never had another king. Besides the senate, the government now consisted of two magistrates called consuls, who were chosen every year. Brutus and Collatinus were the first. Almost from the first foundation of Rome, the inhabitants had been divided into two classes; one called patricians, and the other plebeians. The 'senate and most of the rich men were included among the patricians. The consuls were also chosen from this class.

Thus the patricians had nearly all the power in their hands. This caused frequent quarrels between them and the common people, or plebeians. But at length it was ordained that five magistrates, called tribunes, should be annually chosen by the plebeians.

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GEOGRAPHICAL.-Area, 126,000 square miles.-Population twenty-two millions. Find on the map of Italy the following states, into which Italy is divided:-Austrian Italy, Kingdom of Sardinia, States of the Church, Kingdom of Naples, Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the Duchies of Parma, Modena, Carrara, and Massa, the principality of Lucca, and the Republic of San Merino.

Trace the outline of Italy, and state what it resembles in form.

Draw the rivers Po, Tiber, Arno, the Var, and the Adige

CHRONOLOGICAL.-Ancient Italy was bounded on the north by the rivers Arno and Rubicon: beyond these rivers to the Alps was called by the Romans, Cisalpine Gaul, or Gaul on this side the Alps.

The tribes anciently inhabiting Italy were the Latins, from whom the Roman language was called Latin, Sabines, Tuscans, Samnites, Campani, Tarentini, and Picentini. It received the name of Italy from Italus, a king of the tribe of the Seculi.

OPTICS.

Rainbows.

THE phenomenon of the rainbow is occasioned by the 'refraction and reflection of light. A rainbow never occurs except during rain, or in a very moist state of the atmosphere. The rays of the sun, in passing through the drops of water which are suspended in the clouds, are refracted and separated into the different coloured rays. In this state of separation they fall upon a dark opaque cloud, from which they are reflected to the earth in the form of the rainbow. The disposition of the colours depends upon their different degrees of refrangibility.

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The rainbow, when exhibited in its more complete form, consists of two arches, usually seen in the east during a shower of rain while the sun is shining in the west. These arches are denominated the outer and the inner bow, of which the inner is the brighter; but the outer bow is of larger dimensions every way. The succession of colours in the one is directly opposite to that of the other. The rays which come to the eye from the drops of rain after one reflection and two refractions, produce the inner or primary bow; those rays which come after two reflections and two refractions, produce the outer and higher rainbow. This latter bow is always fainter than the other, because part of the light is lost at each reflection. Taking the two circles as two drops of rain, the ray of light passing

from the sun, s, to the drop at G, Is refracted to H. It is then reflected from the back of the drop at H, and is again refracted in

passing through to I on its way to the eye of the spectator at E. Thus each drop of the inner bow suffers