READING BOOK.

STANDARD IV.

CHAPTER I.

BIRDS OF PASSAGE.

MANY kinds of Birds are found in Great Britain; there are also many more which are never seen there; several kinds visit us during only a part of the yearsome spending the summer with us, and some the winter. Some, particularly birds of prey, travel by day, but the greater number travel by night. They generally keep very high in the air, and always at nearly the same distance from the surface of the earth; so that they rise very high when they pass over mountains, and fly lower among valleys. Most country-boys know the Fieldfare and the Redwing which come to us in November and December. The redwing is a very pretty bird; his back and wings are dark-brown, his breast is white spotted with brown, and his sides and the inner part of his wings are of a bright orangered. The fieldfare is larger but his colours are less gay; they are chiefly brown and dark-grey, and his throat and breast are spotted with black. This bird. comes from Sweden and Norway.

The Northern winters are very long, and snow and ice cover the ground during many weeks; so the birds, finding their food becoming scarce, fly in large flocks to warmer countries and come to our meadows and pasturefields to seek for slugs and worms. These birds are very cautious; one or two are always on the watch

while the rest are feeding, and if any one draws near, they utter a shrill cry of alarm, and the whole flock of fieldfares rise and fly off directly. When they cannot find worms, they eat the berries in the hedges. But during a long hard frost in England, the fieldfares die by thousands. In the spring they hasten home again, for then all the ice and snow of those northern countries quickly melt away, and the earth is soon covered with grass and flowers.

In Sweden the Redwing sings delightfully; he makes only a low pleasant piping while he is here. Before the redwings leave us, some of those birds which spend the spring and summer with us arrive. One of them is the Chiffchaff, so named from its note, "Chiff-chaff-chiffchaff," which it repeats over and over again; it is scarcely to be called singing. This bird lives upon insects, and the caterpillars that are found rolled up in the leaves of our fruit trees. In the month of April the Swallows begin to make their appearance.

It is perfectly surprising how swiftly these birds fly, and how long they can remain on the wing. It is supposed that the swallow flies about ninety miles an hour, and at this rate he could reach Egypt (from England) in thirteen hours. There are several kinds of swallows: those which arrive first are the house-swallows, which build their nests in barns and outhouses, and sometimes even in chimneys, for they like a warm place. But even when a swallow lives in a chimney, it is never seen with its feathers black or dirty. The house-swallow likes the water, and may be seen skimming over a pool, backwards and forwards, for several minutes; it is a pretty bird with purplish back and wings, and a dull red spot upon its throat. Another kind of swallow is called the Martin and sometimes the window-swallow, because it is fond of building in the corners of windows. In October, when the weather becomes cold, the swallows begin to think of returning to their homes in the South;

but before they depart, they assemble together in great numbers on some open field or on some roof, and make a great chattering, as if they were consulting together about the time and manner of their departure. A few days after such a flock has been seen, all the swallows will have quitted the neighbourhood, and will not appear again till the next spring.

As soon as the swallows have arrived in England, the Nightingale follows, and then the Cuckoo. The Nightingale is a plain-looking bird; it has a reddish-brown back and a light-grey breast; but you know there is an old saying, "Handsome is that handsome does ;" and if we think of that we shall call the nightingale handsome, for it sings more beautifully, perhaps, than any other bird. It does not sing in the daytime only, but at night, when all is still, it gives us its delightful music. The Cuckoo does not sing, but everybody likes its pleasant cry of "Cuckoo-cuckoo," for it tells us that summer is coming.

CHAPTER II.

TEA.

THERE is perhaps no single article of food, if we except bread, in more common use among English people than Tea. There are many districts in England where the labourers are too poor to procure meat as a part of their daily food; but many who are content to live for the most part upon bread and potatoes, would be sorely tried if they could not add a cup of tea to their frugal meal. Common as tea now is with Englishmen of every class, it was scarcely known in this country two hundred years ago. We have accounts of breakfasts in Queen Elizabeth's reign, at which beef-steaks and ale were provided for her maids of honour. Even as late as the year 1661, an Englishman of a very inquiring

turn of mind, writes in his diary of the 25th of September: "I sent for a cup of tea, a Chinese drink, of which I had never drunk before."

The productions of the East were in those days.better known in Holland and in Portugal than in our island. It seems that the Dutch introduced tea into Europe, and that it was first brought to London from Amsterdam. The marriage of Charles II. with a princess of Portugal was the occasion of the more general introduction of this beverage; so that a courtier of that period speaking of Portugal says: "The best of queens and the best of plants we owe to that bold nation." In the year 1664, a great company wishing to make a present to the king, purchased two pounds two ounces of tea, and in 1666 tea was sold in London for sixty shillings a pound!

Tea is the national drink of the Chinese: they take it at every hour of the day, and whenever a stranger pays a visit of ceremony, the servants of the house bring up cups of tea for their master and his guests. The tea is not made in the same manner as with us, but a small quantity of the leaves are placed in each cup, and hot water is then poured upon it; no milk or sugar is used. The Chinese are very particular as to the quality of their tea. There is one kind that is said to be reserved exclusively for the Emperor's use. The Russians drink their tea without milk, with a slice of lemon in each cup, and travellers tell us that tea in Russia is most delicious.

The Tea-plant is cultivated chiefly in China. It is an evergreen shrub. The leaves, when full-grown, are about an inch and a half long-narrow, tapering, and of a glossy dark-green colour. The flowers are not unlike those of the wild white rose, but smaller; the fruit is about the size of the sloe.

The tea-plantations are always on high ground, and in a rich soil. Every cottager or small farmer in the