that sprung, tall and graceful, from behind the feathery birches, a little pouch-shaped nest, whose outside was curiously filigreed with bits of mosses, gray and green, on a foundation of thin strips of birch-bark, twined round and round, and glued firmly at the top, across the angle of the maplespray. stooped and put him off his shoulders, with an egg in each hand. "You see," said Howard, "the cowbunting is a bird that hasn't a right to any sort of consideration. She never builds a nest, or takes care of her eggs after she lays them. She just leaves them round on charity, to be hatched or not, as it happens; and it's no robbery to take them wherever you find them. In fact, it's a kindness to the other poor birds that get so imposed on. I think we've had uncommon luck for one day," he "Un-continued, as Steenie came up with the box, and received the double addition to their gains. "A thrush, three cedar-birds, a partridge, a vereo, and a cow-bunting!" "There's what I've been looking for all day," said Howard. "A vireo's nest. And you're just the boy to get the first peep into it." "I don't see how," said Johnnie. less I could fly." "Brains are a match for wings somètimes; and for a good many other things, that for that reason we needn't have the trouble of," said Howard. "See here! Can you climb up on my shoulders ?" "If we don't get any more, we can't divide 'em even," said Steenie. "Three into seven goes twice, and a cow-bunting over! Who'll have that ?" "Suppose we wait till we find out whether we are to get a couple more partridge eggs, and then we shall each have one of them, and a cedar-bird's; and we'll draw lots for the choice of the others." He knelt down for a moment, while John scrambled up, as if for a ride "pickback," and seated himself astride. Howard held him by the legs, and raised himself, with some effort, to his feet again, thus bringing Johnnie comfortably up to the necessary height for grasping and bending down the branch. Which having done, he peeped eagerly into the soft interior of the pretty nest, lined with grass and dry pine-leaves, and reported four eggs. "Four!" exclaimed Howard. "Are you and came out as Howard had proposed, a "That's it!" cried Stephen. "Bully for you, Howard!" They kept on, across the little runnel of "yarb tea," and around through the woods, that were thinning now, towards the fields, little beyond the old oak with the withered branch, near which he had found the nighthawk's eggs a few days before. Along by the rye-field they met Farmer Simmons. "Well, boys," said he, "been eggin'? It's astonishin' what takes the youngsters, all at once and all together! Here's my boy comes to me, chock-full of it, a week or two ago, the fellers up at the 'cademy started the idee,-an' now here's a chap, all the way from New York, sharp-set after the same identical thing! Wonder how they tele "Two?" asked Johnnie. "Shall I ?" "Yes, to be sure; and make haste," said Howard, who had played Atlas almost long enough. John slid down to the ground as Howard graph it round! CHAPTER V.—THE CUTTLE-FISH, NAUTILUS, &c. (Class CEPHALOPODA.) HAVING already made acquaintance with earthy and animal matter, the earthy matter fishes, which belong to the vertebrated (or back-boned) sub-kingdom of animals, and with the crustacea and the vermiform classes, members of the sub-kingdom articulata, we have now to do with the molluscous sub-kingdom, soft-bodied creatures, commonly denominated shell-fish. You may think that oysters and mussels, cuttle-fish and snails, are not worth discoursing about, but if that be your view, I can confidently say that you have not read Edward Forbes's article on "Shell-fish their Works and Ways," in the Westminster Review for January, 1852. To say nothing of the living molluscs, a collection of shells is a beautiful and surprising sight: beautiful, since more exquisite examples of elegance of form and brilliancy of colour cannot be found through the wide range of natural objects; surprising, when we consider that all these durable relics were constructed by soft and fragile animals, among the most perishable of living creatures. Still more surprising is such an assemblage, when we reflect upon the endless variations of pattern and sculpture which it displays; for there are known to naturalists more than fifteen thousand distinct kinds of shells, each presenting some peculiarity of shape or ornament distinguishing it from every other sort. It would be a mistake, however, to suppose that the shell is always a safe guide to the character of the creature within. Very similar shells are often produced by animals extremely unlike each other; while others possessing little resemblance may be the work of animals closely allied. Molluscs are enclosed within a soft, flexible skin, called the mantle, which is chiefly interesting as being the portion of the body concerned in the formation of the shell. Shells are formed, like bones, of a combination of consisting of carbonate of lime (or chalk), usually deposited in a crystalline condition; the animal part being composed of layers of membrane alternating with the chalk, and of cells enclosing the chalk. With the exception of the argonaut, all molluscs possess a very small rudimental shell before being hatched, though afterwards it may exhibit a very different form and colour, or be early shed and never replaced. Where the shell is entirely absent, the mollusc is said to be naked; and some that are not naked are but imperfectly protected, having the shell generally concealed in a fold of the mantle; whilst in others again it completely envelopes the body when the animals desire to withdraw themselves under its protection. Some molluscs in coiling their shells obey the most exact geometrical rules, whilst others twist and twirl them into fantastic likenesses of cornucopiæ and trumpets, without regard to symmetry or direction. Yet every one of the fifteen thousand and more kinds has a rule of its own, a law which every individual of each kind implicitly obeys. The little cells engaged in forming the shell are none of them larger than onehundredth of an inch in diameter, and in most cases are less than one two-thousandth of an inch. In the cavities of these microscopic chambers is deposited the crystalline carbonate of lime, which gives compactness to the beautiful dwelling-house, or rather coat of mail, that protects the tender molluse. "How astonishing," says Forbes, "that myriads of exactly similar and exceedingly minute organs should so work in combination, that the result of their labours should present an edifice rivalling, nay exceeding, in complexity, yet order of details and perfection of elaborate finish, the finest palaces ever constructed by man!" A similar train fluence on the colour of shells, that where the light can scarely penetrate the colours wax faint, and that even individuals of the same species, taken at different depths, ex of colour. As Edward Forbes makes the statement, and Sir J. Herschel repeats it, it ought to be true; but Mr. Gosse gives some facts on the contrary side. of thought ran through the mind of Mr. | said that the depth has a very marked inLewis, when standing on the Capstone Parade, at Ilfracombe, he looked towards Lantern Hill, surmounted by an old bit of building which was once a convent, but which looked to him as if it were the habi-hibit a marked difference in their intensity tation of some huge mollusc that had secreted its shell from the material of the rock. After moralizing for awhile, he concludes that whatever other advantages our habitations may have over those of insects and molluscs, it is clear they have not the advantage in architectural beauty subservient to utility. "Consider man from a distance-look at him as a shellfish and it must be confessed that his habitation is surprisingly ugly. Only after a great many intermediate steps does he contrive to secrete here and there a palace or a Parthenon which enchants the eye." The same apparatus which enables the animal to construct the original shell, suffices also for the execution of repairs, should any accident render them necessary. The chalky matter being deposited by the mantle, repairs can only take place where the mantle is, that is to say within the shell. According to Mr. Woodward, there is an ammonite (a fossil shell resembling the nautilus) in the British Museum, evidently broken and repaired during the life of the animal, which shows that the shell was deposited from within. In many of the mollusca the shell is composed of a single piece, which is usually a spiral tube, open at one end, and gradually increasing in size towards the open extremity, from which the animal protrudes itself when in action. Shells of this description are called univalves, or shells with one valve: an ordinary whelk-shell may serve you as an instance of the class. In others the shell is composed of two pieces, or valves, attached to each other at one point by a hinge, furnished with a spring to open the valves, and with muscles to keep them closed. Such shells are called bivalves, or shells of two valves an oyster will suffice to show you what is meant. It would be difficult to describe the shape of the living mollusc itself. Unlike men, and cows, and crabs, and insects, which have their limbs arranged in pairs, so that one side of the body is the counterpart of the other, we find them almost destitute of bi-lateral (two-sided) symmetry. Neither do we find many traces of that circular disposition of organs around the mouth which is characteristic of star-fishes and their relatives. The mollusc is an epicurean in philosophy, not caring generally to look much about him, and still less to trouble himself with travelling; but being possessed of a good digestive apparatus, he lies shapelessly in his shell, and says to his soul"Take thine ease: eat, drink, and enjoy." The higher mollusca, however the cephalopoda-of which we have presently to speak, are superior to their relatives in several respects. We shall find that they possess tentacula, or feelers, which they make active use of, eyes resembling those of fishes, and even organs of smell and hearing, and these are disposed symmetrically, on or in the Remembering that there are thousands of sorts of molluscs, and that the individuals of many kinds are to be numbered by millions, as any oyster-bed will remind us, we perceive that the sea from which they get the materials for their shells is a great limequarry. Lieutenant Maury has pointed out that the withdrawal of so much solid matter from the waters destroys the equilibrium of the whole ocean, and serves the useful purpose of setting mighty currents in motion. The shells of the Indian Seas and the Eastern Archipelago are prized by collectors for their exceeding beauty, brilliancy of colour, and elegance of form. It is in these seas that the pearl fisheries are conducted, the true pearl oyster being confined to them, though pearls of inferior quality are to be had elsewhere. It is sometimes head. The Cephalopoda, or head-footed animals, the said fishermen made a fire on the supposed island, the kraken, not liking the burning coals, has extinguished the fuel and drowned the men by a sudden subsidence. Availing himself of such exaggerations, M. Victor Hugo, in the "Toilers of the Sea," has represented his hero as carrying on a life and death struggle with an enormous octopus in a cave of the Douvres rocks. But doubtless poulps do sometimes attain very considerable dimensions: M. Sander Rang mentions one, which he saw, of the size of a large cask. derive their name from their most characteristic peculiarity, which is that the front of the body, which forms a well-marked head, carries numerous fleshy arms, which you may mistake for legs if you like, which are effective for seizing and holding the living prey on which the animals feed, and are also used for the purpose of crawling. These arms being furnished on their inner surface with numerous sucking-cups, the animal is enabled to take a firm grasp of any object. The cephalopods are scattered in countless numbers over the whole ocean; some, like the argonaut, constantly frequenting the high seas; others, like the common octopus, invariably clinging to the coasts. All the species are carnivorous and ferocious, and most of them choose the darkness or the twilight as the period of their activity. The Octopus, or Poulp, is a creature of strange and uncouth aspect; its long, flexible arms moving and curling in all directions, and its large eyes, which stare with fixed gaze, rendering it even repulsive. Even a cursory observer would predict it to be ferocious and carnivorous; and its actual character harmonises with its appearance. The common poulp has arms six times the length of his body, and each arm is furnished with 120 pairs of suckers. Woe to the fish that is enfolded within the tenacious grasp of these arms! Resistance is vain, for the suckers may sooner be wrenched off than unfixed. Closer and closer to the mouth the victim is brought; until, being firmly secured as in a vice, the work of demolition commences. Denys de Montfort has represented an enormous poulp in the act of engulphing a three-mast vessel, an arm being twisted round each of the masts, and reaching nearly to the top! This was for the purpose of ridiculing the notions current among navigators with regard to the size and power of these creatures. It has been gravely alleged by Pontoppidan that the disappearance of islands may be explained on zoological principles. Fishermen are said to have landed on a poulp-or kraken, as the Norwegians term it—a mass a quarter of a mile in diameter, with a back covered with a thicket of sea-weeds. When Another eight-armed creature, of which 'we have both facts and fables to present, is the Argonaut, commonly called the papernautilus, from the whiteness and delicacy of its shell. In the mere possession of an external shell it is distinguished from many cephalopods, while it differs from the true nautilus in not having the shell chambered. The argonaut has been celebrated by the poets, ancient and modern, as the model from which man took the first idea of navigation. Two of the arms of the argonaut are expanded so as to present a wing-like form, and it was said that when pursued by its cruel foe, the trochus, it ascended to the top of the water, spread these out as sails to catch the breeze, and rowing with its six remaining appendages, scudded along like a galley in miniature. But it is now known that this is altogether a fiction, and that the expanded membranes are kept closely wrapped round the shell, which they secrete in the first instance and can mend if injured. By the action of the arms, and squirting successive jets of water from its syphon, the argonaut can swim backwards in the same manner as other octopods; and it can also creep along the bottom of the sea, exactly as a large spider might be supposed to do. The Calamary, or Squid, is a long, slenderbodied creature, with two of its arms much longer than the other six, being, in one genus, no less than six times the length of the body. In place of a shell it has a horny plate, something resembling in shape the head of a spear, or the feather of a large pen, from which circumstance it is sometimes called the sea-pen. The common British species is often thrown ashore after high winds, and is used by the fishermen as a bait. Even a squid may prove an interesting study. Mr. Lewis says "I go out on the sands, and at my feet the tide throws a calamary, with which I rush back to my lodgings in great glee. A pie-dish of seawater receives the welcome cephalopod; but he is dead and will show none of his ways. Yet what is this? The colour-specks are coming out on the skin, like stars appearing at night, and now the whole surface, which was pearly-white, is of a variegated hue. I had heard of this before, but actual observation gives one very different feelings from those of mere acquiescence in a fact. The colourspecks continued to come and go, much to my puzzlement.” Sea-grapes so called, masses of dark soft substance resembling purple grapes in size and shape, and often found on the shore, are the eggs of the cuttle-fish, one of the cephalopoda. When the young cuttles come out, they are rather comical-looking individuals. Mr. Wood was much amused with the perfect self-possession of one that was hatched in his presence. It had not been free from the egg-shell for one minute before it began a leisurely tour of the vessel in which it first saw the light, examining it on all sides, as if to find out what kind of a place the world was after all. It then rose and sank many times in succession over different spots, and after balancing itself for a moment or two over one especial patch of sand, blew out a round hole in the sand, into which it lowered itself, and there lay quite at its ease it executed this movement with as much address as if it had practised the art for twenty years. If you have been dredging along with Mr. Kingsley, you will perhaps capture (besides gobies, pipe-fishes, and other wondrous things) some small Cuttle-fish, which you may notice to be creatures of a white jelly, mottled with brilliant metallic hues, with a ring of suckered arms round their tiny parrots' beaks, who, put into a jar, will hover and dart into the water, as the sky-lark does in air, by rapid winnowings of their glassy side-fins, while they watch you with bright lizard-eyes; the whole animal being a combination of the vertebrate and the mollusc, so utterly fantastic and abnormal, that (had not the family been among the commonest, from the earliest geographical epochs) it would have seemed a form almost as impossible as the mermaid, far more impossible than the sea-serpent. After a gale at Tenby, Mr. Lewis was returning to his lodgings carrying a large cuttle-fish in each hand, when some compassionate sailors assured him, "Them's not good to eat, sir!" But the sailors were in error, for, to quote Edward Forbes, these molluscs now, as in ancient times, constitute a valuable part of the food of the poor in some countries. One of the most striking spectacles at night on the shores of the Ægean is to see the numerous torches glancing along the shores, and reflected by the still and clear sea, borne by poor fishermen, paddling as silently as possible over the rocky shallows in search of the cuttlefish, which, when seen lying beneath the water in wait for its prey, they dexterously spear, ere the creature has time to dart with the rapidity of an arrow from the weapon about to transfix his soft but firm body. The people of those countries where cuttlefishes are eaten, are furnished with an excellent means of judging of their freshness, in the fact that for some hours after death the tint of the skin is constantly changing. The cuttle-fishes thus caught and eaten are only receiving the measure they previously meted to others. They chiefly prey upon small fishes and crustacea, and seem especially destined to restrain the too rapid increase of the latter. Winding their arms around the body and limbs of even a powerful crab, and securing them all by fixing the suckers upon the surface of the crustacean, they can pick the shell to pieces with their powerful mandibles, and extract the contained flesh without fear of injury. The common cuttlefish, and the calamaries or squids, are often very troublesome to fishermen, by following shoals of fish into the nets, devouring large quantities of them, and watching an opportunity to dart away before they can themselves be seized. Like the poulp, the cuttle-fish attains a very considerable size. One species (the |