seat of the Persian ambassador, and with each other in their kind attenwith loud cries and wild gesticulations tions. We were provided with seats, demands the release and pardon of one and, during the several intervals, tea, or more of their countrymen, confined such as only Persians can brew, was for some offence in the Consular jail. served in tiny glasses, cigarettes were The ambassador seems to demur and also offered, and in a word we were hesitate to grant this request. The treated with that profuse hospitality ferocious creatures, now mad with and courteous grace which is peculiar .excitement and frenzy, and more like to Orientals.-FUAD BEY, in London demons than men, edge closer and Society. reiterate their demand in wilder tones, inflicting on themselves all the while terrible wounds. The close proximity of these yelling wretches is not pleasant, and when at last the Shah's representative signifies that their prayer is granted it is quite a relief, not to speak of the splashes of blood to which we are abundantly treated till the procession resumes its onward course.

BIRDS' EYES.

Did you ever practice the art of birdstuffing? If so, you must, in your earlier efforts, have been struck with the extraordinary appearance presented by the head when stripped of its Nine times this awful scene was feather-covered skin. The skinless enacted by three different companies; head shrinks into insignificance; the each time the hideousness of the scene cavity containing the ears, of which grew in intensity. To repeat the there is no external sign, becomes boldvarious incidents of each march past, ly conspicuous: while the eyes assume would be of course both tedious and dimensions which are simply portensuperfluous. I shall therefore confine tous. Should you not be a taxidermist myself to remarking that each time the you can see this for yourself by securpageant grew more sanguinary and more repulsive, and when the last wild act was over, it was with a sigh of relief that I learned that the ceremony was at an end.

On inquiring as to whether many did not succumb to their wounds, we were informed by a Persian gentleman. who most affably answered all our questions, that such was not the case. He further stated that immediately after the ceremony the wounded men all repaired to the Turkish bath, where their wounds were well cleansed and after ward tightly bound up; such treatment, our informant assured us, causing a rapid healing.

Before concluding, I must mention the polite and courteous manner in which we were received by the Persian merchants of Validéh Khan, who vied

ing the head of a chicken and stripping it of its skin. Before the skin is removed the eye does not appear to be of any great size, its true dimensions only showing themselves after skinning.

There is always a good reason for every structure, and we shall presently see why the organs of sight are so enormous in proportion to the brain. The fact is, that the eye of a bird has to perform far more complicated tasks than fall to the lot of human eyes.

In the first place, the bird is a winged creature, passing much of its time in the air, and flying with a speed which it is difficult to realize. Take, for example, one of the short-winged birds, such as the common sparrow, and note the rapidity of flight with which it darts past a window. If we take one of the long-winged birds, such as the

swift or the kite, we must multiply the | such a descent from the skies means a swiftness exceedingly. It is therefore meal.

evident that if the eyes were "short- A familiar instance of the telescopic sighted," the bird would be always in eye is to be found in our common danger of striking itself against kestrel, or windhover, as it is often branches of trees and similar objects, named. You may see it suspended and so killing itself. When telegraphic high in air, remaining in almost the wires were first put up, numbers of same spot keeping its face to the wind, birds were found lying dead beneath its wings playing with a peculiar them, and were supposed by those who quivering movement, and its head bent did not understand electricity to have downward while its eyes are eagerly been struck dead by an electric message scanning the ground. So motionless which passed through their bodies is it that the late Mr. T. W. Wood while they were perching on the wires. once made a beautiful sketch of a The fact is, that they were killed by kestrel on the wing by means of a striking the wires, and not by electric- telescope. He happened to possess a ity, which could not pass through the telescope fixed on a stand, and, seeing body of a perching-bird. One day I out of his window a kestrel hovering in saw a heedless sparrow fly against an the air, he brought the glass to bear on overhead wire and fall to the ground it. Finding that the bird did not in two pieces, the head having been move out of the focus, he fetched his severed as neatly as with a knife. It drawing materials, and actually made a is worth noticing that, at the present colored sketch of the bird while viewday, birds are hardly ever killed by ing it through the telescope. similar accidents, they having now The object of the kestrel is the same learned to look out for posts and wires as that of the vulture, namely, to look as well as for trees and branches. In out for food from its point of vantage. order, therefor, to permit a bird to espy Now, its food consists almost wholly of dangerous objects in time to avoid the common field-mouse, or as it ought them, its eyes must be "long-sighted." more correctly to be called, the fieldIn point of fact, many birds which vole. The animal is so small, and its need to detect small objects at a great color harmonizes so well with the soil, distance have eyes which are equal to that even if it were in the habit of our best telescopes. Such, for example, venturing upon open ground, no are the whole of the vultures, who, human eye could detect it from such a when searching for food, ascend to height. But the creature very seldom such a height in the air that they are does show itself on bare ground, preferscarcely distinguishable. From this ring to thread its way among the grassimmense elevation they can survey a stalks, moving so deftly that it hardly vast range of country, and if an animal causes a grass-blade to shake. When should be dead or even dying, it is sure I was a lad at school, I was considered to be detected by a vulture, which as having a special aptitude for catchinstantly swoops down upon it. Besides watching the earth the vultures watch each other, so that if one of them should swoop downward, it is immediately followed by a train of its fellows, who understand perfectly that

ing field-mice, and I know that even when the mouse is within a yard, it can only be detected by a trained eye. Yet, from its elevation, the kestrel will espy the mouse among the grass, and will do so with much more certainty

than can be attained by any human eye. Here then is the eye acting as a telescope of singular powers.

the power of the bird's sight is to be found in our common barn owl, which, like the kestrel, finds its chief food in But this is not enough. When the the field-mouse. In detecting the tiny kestrel has detected its quarry, it prey the kestrel has at all events the swoops to the ground, snatches up the advantage of daylight, while the owl mouse in its claws, and bears it away hunts in the dusk, when a mouse at to its nest. In performing such a feat the distance of a foot or so would be as this, long sight would be absolutely quite invisible to human eyes. Yet useless, as the bird is brought so close the owl detects and carries off its prey to its prey that if the eye retained its with as much certainty as does the telescopic powers, it could no longer see kestrel, so that its eyes must be posthe mouse. So the eye has now to sessed of exceptional powers. change its whole character, and become What is the mechanism which short-sighted. Moreover, the change enables the eyes of the birds to perform between these two extremes must be tasks which to those of man would be made during the few seconds which are impossible? In order to answer this occupied in the downward swoop, as question we must dissect the eye, and otherwise the bird would probably dash for this reason I recommend the itself against the ground instead of reader to examine for himself the eye seizing its prey. Another familiar of a fowl. I have just dissected one example of this rapid change may be of these eyes, and will briefly describe seen in the swift descent of the hawk the process. upon its nest. The eye which saw clearly at a great height sees as clearly all through the swift approach. A most familiar example may be en any summer day.

Before using the knife open the eye, and you will see that beside the upper and lower eyelids there is a third and inner eyelid, made of a thin but very tough membrane, and so formed that We are all accustomed to see the it can be drawn completely over the swallow chasing and catching flies on eye from the inner to the outer side, the wing, but probably have not and then withdrawn so that it becomes realized what is involved in this well- invisible. This structure is called the known action. The flies are of very "nictitating," i. e., winking membrane, small dimensions, as can be seen by and is useful in washing the eyeball opening the mouth of a swallow after when dust or other foreign substances it has been on the wing for some time. lodge in the eye. Birds have no hands They are so small that, even when the wherewith to remove the annoyance, weather is dull, and the swallows are and are therefore furnished with this flying so low that we can see the open- self-acting cleanser. A similar meming and closing of the mouth, and hear brane is possessed by the horse, and is the snapping of the beak which accom- called by grooms the "haw." It is panies each capture, we cannot see the flies themselves. Yet, the swallows are able to see them at considerable distances, and then to adjust the focus of the eye so instantaneously that they can snap up their prey with unerring certainty.

A still more wonderful example of

even more necessary to the bird than to the horse, as if the bird were temporarily blinded when on the wing it might dash itself against some obstacle and kill itself.

Now remove the skin from the side of the head, so as to expose the eyeball and its socket. Be very careful when

dissecting off the eyelids. The next | necessary to line the box with dull black step is to remove the eye from the socket paint, as is done in our opera-glasses, without injuring it. This is not a very microscopes, and telescopes. Then it easy business, as the eye is attached to is necesssary to shift the lens backward the socket by six muscles, each of which or forward, so as to make the image must be carefully severed. A pair of fall evenly on the plate, neither coming small nail-scissors will perform this task to a focus in front of it or behind it. better than a knife. There is no great This is called "focusing" the image. difficulty at first, as the upper muscles Again, it is necessary to regulate the are easily brought into view by pressing amount of light which is admitted into the eyeball on one side. But when you the camera, and for this purpose the come to the muscles attached to the operator is provided with a set of base of the eye, sight is of no more use, stops" or "diaphragms,” i. e., black and you must work by touch only. plates which fit over the lens, and are Compare the eye of the fowl with pierced in the center with a circular that of the buzzard, and you will see aperture, varying in diameter according that they are practically identical, the to the amount of light which is to be chief difference being that the former admitted. Now let us look at the is flatter than that of the latter. The section of the eye of the fowl, and you reason is that poultry live almost en- will see how the camera is simply an tirely on the ground, and therefore do eye, with a square instead of a rounded not need very telescopic vision. But box. the buzzard, as I have often seen, rises to an elevation almost rivaling that of the vulture, circling on motionless wings until it looks no larger than a gnat. Hence the eye must have considerable telescopic powers in order to detect its prey so far below it. How these powers are obtained we shall now

see.

In the first place, it is necessary to Know the general principles on which the eyes of mammals and birds are constructed. They may be easily understood by comparing the eye with a photographer's camera, the latter being a distant imitation of the former, as indeed is the case with all human inventions, man simply imitating nature. The camera consists of a box which has a lens at one end, and at the other end a sensitive plate, which receives the image thrown upon it by the lens. This is the principle of the photograph, but, to reduce it to practice, several accessories are required.

In order to absorb wandering rays of light which would blur the image, it is

Surrounding the whole of the eyeball is the "sclerotic" membrane. The word signifies hardness or toughness, and the membrane is the analogue of the wooden box of the camera. The eye, however, requires a protection which the camera does not. Except when in actual use, the lens of the camera is protected by a cap, and even if dust should settle upon it, the operator can wipe it. The eye, however, is so constantly in use that a permanent transparent cover is needed, and such a cover is found in the "cornea," which in the birds is much more convex than in the mammals. The "retina," i. e., the expansion of the optic nerve, enters the eye from the base. This is the analogue of the sensitive plate in the camera. The whole of the interior of the eyeball is filled with a translucent liquid called the "aqueous humor." Thus, then, it will be seen that the image which is thrown by the lens will fall upon the retina and thus be conveyed to the brain by means of the optic nerve.

Now for the necessary appliances with microscopes or telescopes. In the which have already been mentioned.

If we come suddenly into a darkened room, after having been for some time in bright sunshine, we can see nothing and feel quite blind. On the contrary, if we pass from the darkened room into sunshine, we feel almost equally blinded by the light, and are obliged to shade our eyes in order to save them from severe pain. After a while, however, the eyes become accustomed to either extreme, and we can without pain endure the light of sunshine, and without difficulty can see in a darkened room. The reason is, that the eye, like the photographer's camera, has an apparatus for regulating the amount of light which is to be admitted. The photographer is obliged to have a series of stops, but the eye has the wonderful apparatus called the "iris," because it gives the color to the eye. The "pupil" is simply a hole through which light passes to the lens, and the size of the hole is regulated by the iris, which automatically contracts when light falls upon it, and expands in proportion as light is withdrawn.

Now for another accessory detail.

I mentioned that the interior of an optical instrument is lined with black. So is the interior of the eye, the color ing matter or "pigment" being so dark that it appears even through the tough sclerotic coat.

same way many people can read the smallest type with ease, but cannot distinguish the features of a person at the distance of a few yards. This defect is called "short sight," the lens being too convex, and therefore bringing the focus in front of the retina.

So much for the power of focusing, and we now come to the delicacy, a property of equal value to a bird.

Entering the back of a bird's eye, by the same aperture as that through which the optic nerve passes, is the remarkable organ termed the "pecten, i. e., the comb. It is composed of delicate membrane filled with blood-vessels, and, according to one of our best comparative anatomists, it automatically enlarges and contracts, in the former case acting on the vitreous humor, so as to push the lens forward, and in the latter allowing it to be retracted. fact, it may be considered as analogous to the "fine movement" used in focusing a microscope, the bony plates acting as the "rough movement."

In

Such, then, are some of the wonders of the bird's eye, without which all the beautiful mechanism of the body and limbs would be rendered useless-REV. J. G. WOOD, in The Sunday Magazine.

CURRENT THOUGHT.

Lastly, we come to the means of focusing the eye, so as to convert it DESTRUCTIVE CRITICISM.-A couple of within a few seconds from a telescope learned Hollanders-A. Pierson and S. A. into a microscope, or vice versa. The Naber-have just put forth at Amsterdam a eagles have this power in a wonderful work, written in Latin, the title of which is degree. The owls, too, have it of great Verisimilia, the design being to show the strength, with bony plates much longer "multilated condition of the New Testathan those of the eagle, the imperfect ment." We have not seen the book itself, light in which the owl flies demanding but in the Westminster Review we find a an exceptionally powerful focusing summary of its astounding contents:— apparatus. If we had such an appara-tence pronounced on the current belief that "Carthago delenda est! That is the sentus we should never be obliged to wear the beginnings of the Gospel are set forth in spectacles, and could almost dispense the New Testament. Christian antiquity is