2. Analyse and parse the following: 'One by one the buds open on hawthorn and willow, till all at once the hedges appear green.' 3. Make sentences of your own, and use in each one or more of the following words: Conspicuous, immense, majority, gregarious. insect on the wing, he looks like a red streak. These birds sometimes nest near farmhouses in the rickyards, sometimes by copses, and sometimes in the deepest and most secluded coombes or glens, the farthest places from habitation; so that they cannot be said to have any preference, as so many birds have, for a particular kind of locality; but they return year by year to the places they have chosen. 2. The return of the corncrake or landrail is quickly recognised by the noise he makes in the grass; he is the noisiest of all the spring-birds. The return of the goatsucker is hardly noticed at first. This is not at all a rare, but rather a local bird, well known in many places, but in others unnoticed, except by those who feel a special interest. A bird must be common and plentiful before people generally observe it, so that there are many of the labouring class who have never seen the goatsucker, or would say so, if you asked them. 3. Few observe the migration of the turtle-doves, perhaps confusing them with the wood - pigeons, which stay in the fields all the winter. By the time the sap is well up in the oaks, all the birds have arrived, and the tremulous cooing of the turtle-dove is heard by those engaged in barking the felled trees. The sap rises slowly in the oaks, moving gradually through the minute interstices or capillary tubes of the softer timber trees are Turtle-dove. this close-grained wood; full of it long before the oak; and when the oak is putting forth its leaves, it is high spring. 4. Doves stay so much at this time in the great hawthorns of the hedgerows and at the edge of the copses, that they are seldom noticed, though comparatively large birds. They are easily seen by any who wish; the coo-coo tells where they are; and in walking gently to find them, many other lesser birds will be observed. 5. This is the most pleasant and the best way to observe to have an object, when so many things will be seen that would have been passed unnoticed. To steal softly along the hedgerow, keeping out of sight as much as possible, pausing now and then to listen as the coo-coo is approached; and then, when near enough to see the doves, to remain quiet behind a tree, is the surest way to see everything else. 6. The thrush will not move from her nest if passed so quietly; the chaffinch's lichen-made nest will be caught sight of against the elm-trunk—it would escape notice otherwise; the whitethroat may be watched in the nettles almost underneath; a rabbit will sit on his haunches and look at you from among the bare green stalks of brake rising; mice will rustle under the ground-ivy's purple flowers; a mole perhaps may be seen, for at this time they often leave their burrows and run along the surface; and indeed so numerous are the sights and sounds and interesting things, that you will soon be conscious of the fact, that while you watch one, two or three more are escaping you. would be the same with any other search as well as the dove; I choose the dove because by then all the other creatures are come and are busy, and because it is a fairly large bird with a distinctive note, and consequently a good guide. Richard Jefferies. chaf'-finch It cap'-il-lar-y tubes, thin hair-like tubes. com-par-a-tive-ly large, large as lich'-en, a green or yellow flower- bur'-rows, holes in the ground. others. EXERCISES.-1. The Latin prefix in- (which has also the forms ig-, il-, im-, in-, ir-), before adjectives, means not; as invisible, not visible; ignoble, not noble; illegal, not legal; impure, not pure; irregular, not regular; infant (literally), not speaking. 2. Analyse and parse the following: 'I choose the dove because by then all the other creatures are come and are busy.' 3. Make sentences of your own, and use in each one or more of the following words: Locality, secluded, invisible, ignoble. AN INDIAN AT THE BURYING-PLACE OF HIS FATHERS. [This piece is by William Cullen Bryant, an original and popular American poet.] 1. It is the spot I came to seek— My fathers' ancient burial-place, Ere from these vales, ashamed and weak, Withdrew our wasted race. It is the spot-I know it well Of which our old traditions tell. 2. For here the upland bank sends out A ridge toward the river-side; I know the shaggy hills about, The meadows smooth and wide; 3. A white man, gazing on the scene, Would say a lovely spot was here, I like it not-I would the plain 4. The sheep are on the slopes around, And labourers turn the crumbling ground, And prancing steeds, in trappings gay, 5. Methinks it were a nobler sight To see these vales in woods arrayed, Their summits in the golden light, Their trunks in grateful shade; And herds of deer, that bounding go O'er rills and prostrate trees below. 6. And then to mark the lord of all, The forest hero, trained to wars, Quivered and plumed, and lithe and tall, And seamed with glorious scars, Walk forth, amid his reign, to dare The wolf, and grapple with the bear. 7. This bank, in which the dead were laid, Was sacred when its soil was ours; Hither the artless Indian maid Brought wreaths of beads and flowers, And the gray chief and gifted seer Worshipped the god of thunders here. 8. But now the wheat is green and high On clods that hid the warrior's breast, And scattered in the furrows lie The weapons of his rest; And there, in the loose sand is thrown 9. Ah! little thought the strong and brave, |