6. When wool is intended to be manufactured into cloth of mixed colours, it is dyed in the fleece before it is spun.

7. When intended for tapestry, it is dyed after it is spun ; and when to be wrought into cloth of a uniform colour, it is not dyed until the cloth is made.

8. The skins of sheep, after the process called tanning and currying, are manufactured into a thin and coarse, but useful kind of leather, which is much in request by saddlers, bookbinders, and others.

9. These skins, by a different process, are converted into parchment, which is used for writing deeds upon.

10. Lamb's skins are made into gloves.

11. During winter, sheep-skins are the common dress of the lower class of peasantry in Russia.

12. Every part of the Sheep is advantageous to mankind. 13. The flesh, under the denomination of mutton, supplies us with a wholesome and palatable food, which is in greatest estimation when the animals are at least three, and not more than six years old.

14. That of lambs, in the spring of the year, is also in considerable demand.

15. Suet is a solid kind of fat which is found in various parts of the bodies (particularly about the kidneys and intestines) of sheep, oxen, and other ruminating animals.

16. Suet is used for culinary and other purposes, and very extensively in the making of candles.

17. The milk of sheep is rich and nourishing, and in great esteem among the peasantry of all countries where these, animals are bred.

18. It produces an abundance of butter, but this is so unpalatable as seldom to be eaten.

19. It yields a large proportion of strong and tough cheese. 20. Of the entrails of sheep are made the strings generally called cat-gut, which are used for different kinds of musical instruments, and for the coverings of whips.

21. Handles of knives, and several other useful articles, are

made of the bones of sheep; the refuse parts of which are coarsely ground to serve as manure.

22. A very important advantage is in another respect derived from these animals, by folding them upon land on which corn is afterwards to be grown.

LESSON 143.-p. 249.

INSTINCT OF BIRDS DISPLAYED IN THE STRUCTURE OF THEIR NESTS.

1. The different orders of birds exhibit great variety in the materials and structure of their nests.

2. Those of the rapacious tribes are, in general, rude, and composed of coarse materials, as dried twigs, bents, &c.

3. But they are often lined with soft substances.

4. They build in elevated rocks, ruinous and sequestered castles, and towers, and in other solitary retirements.

5. The eyrie or nest of the eagle is quite flat, and not hollow, like those of other birds.

6. The male and female commonly place their nest between two rocks, in a dry and inaccessible situation.

7. The same nest, it is said, serves the eagle during life. 8. The structure is so considerable, and composed of such solid materials, that it may last many years.

9. Its form resembles that of a floor."

10. Its basis consists of sticks about five or six feet in length which are supported at each end, and these are covered with several layers of rushes and heath.

11. An eagle's nest was found in the Peak of Derbyshire, which Willoughby describes in the following manner:- -"It was made of great sticks, resting one end on the edge of a rock, the other on a birch tree.

12. Upon these was a layer of rushes, and over them was a layer of heath, and upon the heath rushes again; on which lay one young eagle and an addle egg, and by them a lamb, a hare, and three heath pouts.

13. The nest was about two yards square, and had no hollow in it."

14. But the butcher-birds, or shrikes, which are less rapacious than eagles and hawks, build their habitations in shrubs and bushes, and employ moss, wool, and other soft materials.

15. The common magpies build their nests in trees, and their structure is admirably contrived for affording warmth and protection to the young.

16. The nest is not open at the top; but covered in the most dexterous manner with an arch or dome, and a small opening in the side is left, to give the parents an opportunity of passing in and out at their pleasure.

17. To protect their eggs and young from the attacks of other animals, the magpies place, all around the external surface of their nest, sharp briers and thorns.

18. The long-tailed titmouse, or ox-eye, builds nearly like the wren, but with still greater art.

19. With the same materials as the rest of the structure, the titmouse builds an arch over the top of the nest, which resembles an egg erected upon one end, and leaves a small hole in the side for a passage.

20. Both eggs and young, by this contrivance, are defended from the injuries of the air, rain, cold, &c.

21. That the young may have a soft and warm bed, she lines the inside of the nest with feathers, down, and cobwebs. 22. The sides and roof are composed of moss and wool, interwoven in the most curious and artificial manner.

1. The fox has, in all ages and nations, been celebrated for craftiness and address.

2. Acute and circumspect, sagacious and prudent, he diver

sifies his conduct, and always reserves some art for unforeseen accidents.

3. Though nimbler than the wolf, he trusts not entirely to the swiftness of his course.

4. He knows how to insure safety, by providing himself with an asylum, to which he retires when danger appears.

5. He is not a wanderer, but lives in a settled habitation, and in a domestic state.

6. The choice of situation, the art of making and rendering a house commodious, and of concealing the avenues which lead to it, imply a superior degree of sentiment and reflection. 7. The fox possesses these qualities, and employs them with dexterity and advantage.

8. He takes up his abode on the border of a wood, and in the neighbourhood of cottages.

9. Here he listens to the crowing of the cocks and the noise of the poultry.

10. He scents them at a distance.

11. He chooses his time with great judgment and discretion. 12. He conceals both his route and design.

13. He moves forward with caution, sometimes even trailing his body, and seldom makes a fruitless expedition.

14. When he leaps the wall, or gets in underneath it, he ravages the court-yard, puts all the fowls to death, and then retires quietly with part of his prey, which he either conceals under the herbage, or carries off to his kennel.

15. In a short time he returns for another portion, which he carries off in the same manner, but to a different place.

16. In this manner he proceeds, till the light of the sun, or some movements perceived in the house, admonish him that it is time to retire to his den.

17. He does much mischief to the bird-catchers.

18. Early in the morning he visits their nets and their birdlime, and carries off successively all the birds that happen to be entangled.

19. The young hares he hunts in the plains, seizes old ones

8

in their seats, digs out the rabbits in the warrens, finds out the nests of partridges, quails, &c., seizes the mothers on the eggs, and destroys a prodigious number of game.

20. Dogs of all kinds spontaneously hunt the fox.

21. Though his odour be strong, they often prefer him to the stag or the hare.

22. When pursued, he runs to his hole; and it is not uncommon to send in terriers to detain him till the hunters remove the earth above, and either kill or seize him alive.

23. The most certain method, however, of destroying a fox is to begin with shutting up the hole, to station a man with a gun near the entrance, and then to search about with the dogs. 24. When they fall in with him, he immediately makes for his hole.

25. But, when he comes up to it, he is met with a discharge from the gun.

LESSON 149.-p. 256.

THE BAROMETER.

1. The barometer is a philosophical instrument for measur ing the weight of the atmosphere.

2. The barometer may be said to be the invention of Torricelli, who, observing that a column of water, of about thirtythree feet, was equal in weight to one of air of the same base, concluded that a column of mercury of only twenty-nine and a-half inches would be so too, such a column of mercury being equal in weight to thirty-three feet of water.

3. The common barometer is a glass tube about two-tenths of an inch in diameter, and its length, at least, thirty-one inches.

4. This tube is filled with mercury so as not to have any air over it, the maker placing his finger on the end, immerses it in a basin of quicksilver.

5. The quicksilver in the tube, by its own weight, endeavours to descend into that of the basin: but the external